This wide-ranging speech by Daniel Ortega on the occasion of the graduation ceremony of the military academy provides insight into his thinking on history and a number of key issues today. He traces the roots of the Army back to indigenous leaders who fought against the Conquest, the integration of the Spanish priest, Gaspar Garvía Laviana into the ranks of the FSLN (whose anniversary is celebrated in these days), the fight against Somoza, and the anti-imperialist struggle continued today in countries like Bolivia. He analyzes the current status of US democracy and how it undercuts current US criticism of Nicaragua. He projects the idea of Sandinistas as peace makers, misdirecting attention away from the constant attacks on the Movement of Peasants Against the Canal and the conclusions of The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts that the 100+ killings between April 18-May 30, 2018 constituted “crimes against humanity.” With the next elections slated for Nov 2021, the country in effect is in an undeclared state of siege, as several opposition leaders recently are being prevented by the Police from leaving their homes. [Capitalizations mirror the original text in Spanish]
Speech of Daniel Ortega at the Graduation Ceremony of Officers in the Military Academy
Dec 11, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Compañeros and Compañeras, all Graduating Officers: Do you solemnly swear before God, the Country, Our National Heroes and on your Honor, to respect and obey the Constitution and Laws, defend at the cost of your own Life, if necessary, the Rights and Liberties of the People, and Independence, Self Determination, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of our Nation, as well as serve the Country with Honor and Loyalty, fulfill the orders that come from High Command, respect the Laws and Regulations that govern Military Career and Life, and faithfully and consciously fulfill the Duties of the Offices that are conferred on you, and the Missions that your Senior Officers assign you? Yes, we swear! If you do so, let the Country, the People reward you, and if not, let them hold you responsible.
Sacred Oath, before God, before the Families, before the entire People of Nicaragua. And today, December 11 of the year 2020, this Graduation of the Academy of Division General José Dolores Estrada Vado Center for Higher Military Studies is dedicated to General Benjamin Zeledón.
There is continuity… Who did General José Dolores Estrada confront, with Andrés throwing the stone against the invaders? He faced the invaders, the expansionists of the Empire of the North, slaveholders. He confronted them. Those who had dared to impose a yankee President here in Nicaragua, William Walker, that yankee President, imposed and recognized by the US government of that time, the Nicaraguan People defeated him, led by General José Dolores Estrada.
Who did General Benjamín Zeledón confront and defeat? He confronted and defeated, yes, he defeated them, because he did not surrender, and fell defending the Sovereignty of the Country before the troops of the US Army, who offered to pardon his Life if he surrendered, and he, later General Sandino would also say it: I am not selling out nor surrendering, never! And that is the Victory, the Dignity of the People prevailed. And thus goes the long review of our History, Nicaragua trying to develop itself, trying to stabilize itself, and the US Rulers trying to take over our Territory. And there are those who ask themselves, why this appetite, this ambition, this fixation of the yankee Empire on Nicaragua? Nicaragua is located in a strategic point.
Since the Spanish colonizers arrived, when they got to Nicaragua and came upon the Rio San Juan and later the Great Lake of Nicaragua, and then found this small piece of land that had to be passed in the Isthmus of Rivas, they said then: Here is the path to unite the Atlantic and the Pacific. They came from the Atlantic, and they were looking for the narrow crossing believing that they had arrived at the Indies, they never imagined that they were on this Continent here, and were looking for the crossing.
And the British also said: Oh, there is the crossing, and the British began to fight over the control of Nicaragua with the Spanish, and the British began to invade the Territory controlled by the Spaniards, taken by the Spaniards, by the Rio San Juan. Expeditions came from there with British Officers and Soldiers.
England, that has been a great empire and that still had that force, challenged the Spanish empire over the Territory that the Spanish invaders had stolen from these Peoples; even Admirals recognized as great Strategists, like Admiral Nelson, also sailed up the Rio San Juan to look for how to take over the position of El Castillo that the Spanish controlled, and from there penetrate into the Lake and take over Nicaragua, and defeat the Spanish. But Nelson also failed in that attempt, he was able to sail the river, he was even able to climb the hill going toward El Castillo, but he was not able to take it.
And the United States that was beginning to develop then in the midst of their wars, internal wars in the United States, between the North and South, and the South defending slavery, and Walker came from the South, and Byron Cole, the Coronel, came from the South as well, now in other conditions, looking at how to take over these Countries to try to advance again into the North, take over all of Central America, and then go from them to the United States. And they were defeated.
Central America united at that time, because they knew that if they took over Nicaragua then they would take over Central America, and that then they would try to take over Mexico, to continue with their adventure again toward the United States.
And that yankee, Walker, recognized at that time by the Government of the United States, who when he took possession was accompanied by the US Ambassador, yes, representatives of the Empire, the Ambassadors, and recognized by the US Ambassador there; but then, the Nicaraguan People, the Peoples of Central America, united, were able to defeat the yankee invader.
And this is the name of the School, in Honor of the First General, and Andrés the First Sargent. Who stood out, for his leadership in combat, General José Dolores Estrada, and for his Heroism and Bravery, Andrés, throwing the stone, defeating the yankees. And right there are our roots, that is where our roots come from; of course, our roots come from a little further back, they come from the Resistance, the struggle that our ancestors waged, under completely unequal conditions.
Diriangén, Nicarao, they fought, they confronted the invaders under some completely unequal fights. But it is the fact that in addition the invaders came manipulating the Cross, and combined the Sword and the Cross in order to subdue the Peoples of our ancestors. We come from there, from those ancestors, later mixed in Mestizaje.
And well, the struggle comes from there, the struggle that you carry in your veins, the fight for the Country, the fight for Dignity, and the fight, not for the fight, simply the fight because we Nicaraguans want Peace. We Nicaraguans have always wanted Peace, we have never done damage to any Country. We never have done damage to the United States of America. And on account of what do the yankees, and some foreign Powers, Europeans, feel they have the Right to treat us as if we were their Colony?
And think about the continuity, after Sandino as well, which is, as the Compañero said well in his Message, the living representation of our highest historical representation about what our History is, the History of the defense of Dignity, Peace, Sovereignty, that was able to defeat the yankees, the yankees had to withdraw.
Then the yankees resorted to, from the yankee Embassy, connected to Washington and with the yankee Officers of the yankee Army, forged the crime of Sandino. A cowardly attitude, because Sandino, in the end, had decided to risk everything for Peace; but, of course, one condition of our General Sandino had already been met: the yankee troops had to withdraw from Nicaragua. And the yankee troops had withdrawn.
So Sandino took up the challenge of coming in from the mountains to Managua to negotiate Peace, and it was a mortal trap, appropriate for cowards, for murderers, yes the murderers of Sandino are in the North, they continue being in the North, because they wanted to liquidate Sandino, and they murdered him after inviting him to a dinner.
This should have immediately reminded Sandino, when he was already captured and realized that they were going to shoot him, it should have reminded him of the last supper of Christ. Sandino experienced the last supper here in the Presidential Home, in the Hill, where now the Army Command is, invited by the president, a dinner there, and now in the evening when Sandino was leaving, the ambush, the crime organized by the yankees, and Somoza executing the crime and the murder of Sandino.
This is what they wanted, to murder Sandino and impose their instrument, someone who would kneel down to them, someone who had been born already surrendered to the yankee Empire, someone born already sold out to the yankee Empire for 30 coins, like Judas sold Christ for 30 coins. And so they strengthened Somoza and his Army.
We cannot forget, even more in these Times, that the yankees armed, trained, taught them methods of torture, applied all their skills to train here the Intelligence Services, to confront the offspring of Sandino who continued the struggle after the murder of our General.
The fight continued, and now right before, when there was little time left before the Victory and the battle was fierce, and many Brothers waging the battle under unequal conditions were falling in combat, raising the Red and Black flag of Sandino to defend the Blue and White flag of the Country that was humiliated, that was being disgraced, then, on December 11, a day like today, in the year 1978, 42 years ago today and for whom we are honoring today, Homage is being rendered to a Hero of the Country and the People, a Brother of Spanish origins, who came here not with the attitude of the conquistadores, nor the mentality of the imperialists, but who came here as a Priest to work with the Poor, to work for the Peasants.
This is what Fr. Gaspar García Laviana dedicated himself to in the entire Southern Zone of our Country, from Granada to the Municipalities in the Province of Rivas. Gaspar passed through all those places in his Missionary Work, preaching the Gospel of Christ, defending the Poor. Because the Gospel of Christ is clear, when it says: it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Reign of Heaven. And this continues being a great truth, the rich, the capitalists, at the service of the Empire, at the service of the yankees, they continue enriching themselves at the cost of Peoples, at the cost of hunger, at the cost of poverty, at the cost of the exploitation of People.
And when Gaspar fell, how much joy for Somoza, the servant of the yankees, and Somoza´s newspaper, which was called Novedades, ran the title: “The Communist priest fell and is going to hell.” That was the headline. They thought that with Gaspar´s fall in combat the People would become demoralized, the Peasants were going to burst into tears, and it was in those moments that the Peasants, the People, the Combatants of the Sandinista Front, said: This is not the moment to burst into tears, because then Gaspar would be condemning us. It is the moment to continue fighting, following the steps of Gaspar.
And when the People entered into this Victorious Plaza on July 20, 1979, Chief Diriangén, Chief Nicarao entered here Victorious, here entered victorious José Dolores Estrada and Andrés Castro, here entered victorious Benjamín Zeledón, here Sandino entered victorious, here Gaspar García Laviana entered victorious, here Carlos Fonseca entered victorious, here entered victorious all the Heroes and Martyrs of this Heroic People, of this Fighting people, and here entered victorious, protected by the Red and Black flag of Sandino, the White and Blue Flag of the Country entered victoriously, entered cleanly.
This is where the Army comes from, from that long History, we could do the entire genealogical tree from there, from our indigenous ancestors, to the last times in which the struggle has continued. And the Struggle continues not because we would want to confront the yankees, but because we are not in agreement with the barbarities that are committed there in the United States; we are not in agreement with the barbarities that the United State and European Powers commit against the Peoples of the World.
In Asia, in Africa, in Latin American they have committed crimes against humanity, but who sanctions them, who punishes them, if they are a Superpower; then the World turns into a World where the “law of the jungle” is imposed, and not the Law that is established in the United Nations, where all the Countries sign those laws, all have signed them, but the Super Powers do not follow them.
The Super Powers, simply because they are Military Powers, because they are Economic Powers, since they have Atomic Weapons, so the Super Powers do not follow it, and impose on the World the “law of the jungle”. This is what they impose on the World and try to impose on Our Latin America and the Caribbean the “law of the jungle.” Where it does not go their way, they resort to Military Coups.
We already saw what happened in Bolivia, that is very recent; so many Military Coups that we could spend the entire night here doing the history of Military Coups in Latin America and the Caribbean, but we have the recent Coup in Bolivia, and the complicity of International Organizations. And logically the yankees are there in the Plan, directing the Plan, directing the OAS, not all the Countries of the OAS, let alone all the Peoples where Governments are that take positions supposedly in the name of the People, but where the People repudiate the positions that those Governments take, simply following the orders of the yankees.
They are servile Governments that do not have Dignity, and since they recognized the Coup against Bolivia, since they recognized later the Government that the Coup imposed, and since they had it all planned to not allow new Elections, they were dragging their feet, dragging their feet, until finally they were not able to continue because the Bolivian People are a Brave People, a Fighting People , an Aware People, and they remembered very well the entire period of Government of our Brother Evo Morales.
How did the Bolivian Economy grow? But it grew not just to benefit the Businesses and the wealthy, but it grew, it provided profits to the Businesses, it is true that it gave profits to the rich, but it gave benefits first of all to the People, the Poor, the Peasants.
Where Bolivia was characterized among the Poorest Countries of our Latin America, it was with Haiti, it was with Nicaragua, Honduras, among the most impoverished Countries of Latin America, and suddenly Bolivia began economic growth. Why? Because it knew how to use the resources, the Wealth that Bolivia has. Bolivia has gas and it has a lot of Wealth, minerals, and capacity and experience in a People to produce, to work, and that gave then impressive economic growth to Bolivia, higher than other Governments.
And a Process, in that stage, very similar to ours, where we achieved higher growth, from the year 2007 to the year 2016 we had growth, and here the Business People earned money, but the People earned, the Workers earned, the Peasants earned. But they always have the problem that they want to impose Governments, and where a Ruler comes out who was not placed there by them, they no longer like it, why? Because they have a completely expansionist, imperialist policy and they continue acting like a hegemonic Super power. They do not realize that the World has changed, that it is no longer possible that a hegemonic Power be established in the World, that now there are different Fronts that have been taking shape, some stronger, others less strong. Even here in Latin America ALBA was able to be configured. Now the anniversary of ALBA is coming on December 14th, when Fidel and Chavez founded ALBA. That anniversary is coming. Then came CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
Throughout Latin America it was a good moment, and all of us were there, Progressive Governments, Revolutionary Governments, Governments on the Right…We were all there! But the plotting happened and the Coups came, and persecutions came. And Countries like Brazil, where President Lula was, we already know the story, but Lula was there and the Brazilian People always battling; the Argentinian People also are there continuing the fight; the Mexican People are continuing the fight.
In other words, new spaces have opened in Latin America; we have a Latin America where not all Governments say “yes sir” to the yankees. No, they do not see the yankee as the owner of their Peoples. There are Governments who want, like we want, good relations with the United States, respectful relations. But that they quit conspiring, as they conspire in the Embassies, the Ambassadors, looking how to bring together all the terrorists, coup supporters, those who showed their claws and murdered and burned in a brutal way in April 2018.
They are nurturing them again, and are looking how to unite them and offering them resources. What for? So that in the next Elections that we will have in 2021, then they can impose, because that is what they always aspire to do, put in a President at the service of, on their knees before the imperialist Policy. That is what they like, that is what they are seeking, in all parts of the World, not just in Nicaragua.
But People are rebellious and in the end decide, and the best example, I repeat, we have in Bolivia. When it looked like all was lost and months went by without new Elections, and Evo was there in Argentina, because they wanted to kill him, and people were being pursued there in Bolivia, they were throwing them in jail, they were torturing them; but then, they were not able to resist the pressure of the People, and the Elections came, and in spite of their millions and their Campaigns, they were not able to defeat the Bolivian People, and the Bolivian People voted in favor of the People.
They have to understand, the United States has to understand that even that image that they have wanted to sell, that they are perfect Democracy, for a time now that image has been completely impaired, not just in the World, but with the US People themselves. If not, let us remember the struggles in the United States and the crimes that were committed against the Fighters for Civil Rights, for the Right of Women to Vote, the right of women to work.
How many persecutions, how many crimes, for the Rights of Workers to work eight hours, because they worked 14, 20 hours! Crimes were committed against the Workers who protested, and that later some were murdered in the moment of the repression, because they were marching, and then those Workers were tried, and then those Workers were hung, simply for demanding that the hours of exploitation be reduced.
That is why there is a commemoration for the Heroes of Chicago, because that great Battle was in Chicago, it is celebrated on May First, and we celebrate it here as Workers Day. It was precisely in the United States, the supposed Democracy, where the Workers fought so they would not be treated as slaves.
Let´s not even talk about the fight of the black population, fighting for their Rights, because they were not able to go to a School of whites, the children of blacks, they could not travel together in a bus, but there was a corner for blacks on the bus, where they allowed them to get on the bus, in other buses they did not let them get on. And all this completely in accordance with the Law in the different States of the United States, where they did not allow a young black man who had been able to pass high school to enter University.
Where there were bars, restaurants, only for whites, and a black person could not enter, they would kick them out the door. And I am talking about US blacks, because there were children of African immigrants, their grandparents had arrived from Africa, their parents had now been born in the United States, they had and have US citizenship, and even so their Civil Rights were not recognized. They reached that level of brutality in the repression.
We have seen there how they killed them, in the eyes of the World, not just one, dozens, hundreds of blacks. If that is the Land of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Ku Klux Klan has not disappeared, it is alive there in the United States, and they march with the insignia of the Nazis and they defend Hitler, and also walk about armed, because they are allowed to be armed, commit crimes. There are no Human Rights that are worth it there! There Human Rights are violated every day.
Let us not even talk about the attitude against Central American, African, Asian immigrants, the terrible things that they say against our Peoples.
In other words, we are facing a Country which has been unmasked before the World, and where the US People themselves have had to fight, the US Youth opposing the Vietnam War, the US Population also defending migrants. Of course, there is a percentage of the US population that is completely racist, that cannot see anyone not even with brown skin because that person should be dead. Racism in the United States reaches these extremes.
And the most recent thing about the US Democracy is that they want to teach classes on Democracy in all parts of the World, they want to decide how Elections should be in all parts of the World, they want to decide what Party should win in all parts of the World…Let´s look at them, and let them see themselves in their own mirror. They are there fighting one another and accusing one another of fraud.
Fraud in the United States! And not now, now in several Elections these accusations of fraud have come out, and that they have an Electoral System where the vote of the People does not count, because the People vote, but it is worth nothing that a Candidate has a majority of the votes, if later in each State the Delegates of each Party decide to choose the one who got less popular votes.
Think about that, what type of Democracy is that! What would happen if here we would say, well, we are going to follow the example of the United States which is the perfect Democracy, and we are going to have Constitutional Reforms, what for? To establish a Model like that of the United States. Well, people are going to vote, but the one who has the most votes is not going to win, but the one who has the most votes in the Delegates of the different Parties, in each Province of Nicaragua is going to win. How would they react here, how would the Europeans react, and how would the yankees themselves react? Criticizing us and telling us that we are establishing a Dictatorship and tyranny in Nicaragua. They would say that. Where a tyranny really exists, a Dictatorship of Economic Power, Military Power, is in the United States.
There they are still, time is running and still there is no Declaration that would say who won the votes in the different States; the current President demanding fraud, and some Governors backing the accusation of fraud, saying who knows where so many votes came from.
All this in the United States of America! What we are simply seeing there is hypocrisy, a double standard, what we are seeing is an attitude, as we would say here, of scoundrels. They are scoundrels!
With what authority do they go about demanding in other Countries that they have to have Democratic Elections? With what Authority? Let them establish a true Democracy in the United States first, because that Democracy does not exist, nor do they exist in electoral policy terms, nor in economic-social terms. Because we have already seen how the US Population suffers hunger, unemployment, some have jobs, but another part is unemployed, even before this disease got there, now with the disease the situation is worse for the US People.
There is poverty there, in the United States there is poverty, there is extreme poverty; of course, the extreme poverty is not seen because what you generally see there are the large buildings, everything that gives the image of consumption in the United States. But extreme poverty is there.
I continue to recall that, Rubén Darío, returning from Europe, passed through New York, and when he passed through New York he was surprised, and said, 50 story buildings! In other words, Darío amazed looking at those large buildings, logically now there are much larger buildings than there were in those years.
Servitude of people of color, because all the employees there were black, the domestic workers, black. Because of the discrimination against blacks, they did not give them any other type of work, they did not let them enter another type of work. In those times they still had not achieved progress in Civil Rights, when Darío passed through there. And Darío said, 50 story buildings, servitude of people of color, and what is sad, my God, there are people dying of cold and pain, pain, pain…And he began to describe the pain there in New York. What he saw there! Because one imagines that in the United States there is no poverty…Of course there is poverty! Of course, there is extreme poverty!
And then there is an amount of work that US Citizens no longer do and that is why they need immigration, immigrants. In other words, migrants are needed in the United States, what happens is that when many arrive and they already have the quota filled for them to work in the activities that US Citisens no longer do, then they close the doors and they want to expel them; or later they want to expel them after they have worked for years,
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Dear Compañeros and Compañeras, Dear Youth, we come from that History, our Parents come from that, our Grandparents, our Great Grandparents, from all that Historical Path, from the time the conquistadores arrived up to now.
And that Army that was born in the heat of the Revolutionary Triumph, that was forged, that Army was forged as steel is forged; the steel is forged in the furnace, with fire and blows, with the hammer the bars were forged, the swords…That Army has been forged, because in that way the History of our Country has been forged, and we have an enormous Strength, an enormous Wealth, which is not Gold, but we have a Wealth that is more valuable than Gold, which is the Awareness of feeling ourselves proud to be Nicaraguans, we feel proud of being bearers, inheritors of this Heroic History.
That we will continue defending Peace, of course, because we want Peace, and we have always fought for Peace, even in the harshest times of the War. The 80s were a hard period of war, hard, but in the end we sought Peace and we achieved Peace. And we have had there a Peace with some acts of aggression, some crimes of groups that are always trying to organize, who are nurtured by the United States, but we have had Peace through different Governments for the first time in the History of our Country, through different Governments, notice, without Coups.
From 1990, when the Peace Accords were finalized and the Disarmament in our Country, to 2000, 10 years, to 2006, 16 years. Elections in November 2006, we returned to Government through Electoral means, 15 years plus 16, 31 years of Peace. But above all in that period from 2007 to 2016 the Miracle happened in Nicaragua, of Harmony among the different Economic Forces, Social Forces, an enormous National Alliance, and where no one spoke about confrontation nor of war, until finally the conspirators came, nurtured from the United States, and caused that bath of blood in April 2018.
Then, it has been difficult, but we have now achieved re-establishing Peace, and we have also achieved, in the midst of very complex conditions like the Pandemic, and then the hurricanes, we have achieved the stabilization of the Economy, recovering the Economy, and achieving now growth rates, while other Countries are in very difficult conditions in spite of the fact that they have much stronger Economies than ours. But this is the effort of an entire People who want to work, who want work, who want Peace and who want Stability.
Dear Boys and Girls, Dear Brothers and Sisters, Dear General Julio César Avilés, Dear Brothers of the Joint Chiefs of the Army, Dear Head of the “José Dolores Estada” Academy, Dear Families, here is this Detachment of Youth, of our Youth, who are not formed for Evil, but who are formed for Good, to give the People a hand, to give the Workers a hand, to give a hand, as was given to the Miskita Communities who were in the Keys, who were in the Islands, now when the hurricane hit and they did not want to leave, and the Naval Force was there to give them a hand, rescuing Women, Men, Children. Like the Police, like the different Organizations and Institutions, where logically the Army plays a very important role in what is the attention given to these Phenomena of Nature.
So, this is an Army that is to serve the People, accompany the People in the defense of Work, in the defense of Productive Activities, in the protection of Small, Medium and Larger Producers, it does not make a distinction; for the Coffee harvests for example, there they unite with Producers, Army, Police, in the activities of Ranching; in other words, the protection of the Peasantry so that they can work Safely, so they are not assaulted, not robbed, nor murdered.
That is the work, but they are also Youth forged with all the Steel of our History, with all the Strength, Steel, Resolve of our Heroes, with all the Steel, Strength and Resolve of General Benjamín Zeledón, to whom we dedicate this Graduation today.
And we congratulate you who have finished this New Stage of your Lives, we congratulate your Families who accompany you this night, and say to the People of Nicaragua, “here you have your Offspring to serve the People of Nicaragua, and to defend Sovereignty, Peace, the Stability of the Country, with all the Resolve, all the Strength and all the Conviction that is necessary, as our Heroes and Martyrs demonstrated.”
Long live the Army of Nicaragua!