This is the translation of the speech Daniel Ortega gave explaining his reasons for releasing the 222 political prisoners on Feb 9, 2023. The release raised a lot of questions, both inside and outside of Nicaragua. Why did he release so many? What did he negotiate for in exchange?
The fact that two people decided not to get on the plane raised other questions: Bishop Álvarez of Matagalpa, who he describes as “deranged”, and Fanor Alejandro Ramos, who he says decided not to get on the plane because he was afraid the US might execute him for drug trafficking. Other news sources identify Fanor as a sharpshooter who was accused of drug trafficking after refusing to shoot at students, as others had done, as documented by the OAS and UN Human Rights reports covering the events of April 2018.
Ortega then moved Bishop Álvarez from house arrest to the principal penitentiary in Tipitapa, and he was sentenced – without a trial – to 26 years in jail. His trial date was set for February 15th.
In this speech Ortega provides his version of these events.
While the plane was in the air, the National Assembly passed a law revoking the citizenship of all those released, in addition to everyone found guilty of “harm against the Fatherland”, and then proceeded to erase all their information from the public registry, birth certificates, etc. Then the government called for a massive pro government demonstration on Feb 12th. There continue to be at least 35 political prisoners in Nicaraguan jails, according to the group that monitors their situation.
(Use of capitalized words reflect the original Spanish. Because it is a speech, there is some repetition).
Message of President-Commandante Daniel
to the Nicaraguan People
Feb 9, 2023
Good afternoon, Dear Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Dear Families of our Blessed and Always Free Nicaragua.
On this occasion we have called you here in this site of so many Historical Events, in this Olof Palme Convention Center, those coming here would be, from left to right, we have General of the Army Julio César Avilés Castillo, Major General Bayardo Rodríguez, Major General Marvin Corrales.
Then there is the Foreign Minister of the Republic, Retired General, because he also was a Guerilla fighter, Denis and his brothers, there in the North, Compañero Denis Moncada; the Prosecutor of the Republic, Compañera Ana Julia Guido; Compañero Marvin Aguilar, Vice President of the Supreme Court; we are giving some time to Alba Luz, who has to do some tasks still that are related to the topics which we are going to talk about; Compañera Arlette Marenco, Vice Foreign Minister of the Republic, and Compañero Michael Campbell, from the Foreign Ministry, works in Advising, and works on different activities.
Here is Compañero Rosario Murillo, Co-president of the Republic, truly she is, she is Co-President of the Republic! In the Constitution we will have to make some Reforms…Doctor Porras, we will have to make some Reforms so that the principle of Co-Presidency be established. The First General Commissioner of the National Police, Francisco Díaz; the General Commissioner Horacio Rocha, Advisor, with all of his experience, Advisor to the Presidency to accompany the tasks of the Police; General Commissioner Zhukov Serrano, responsible for the work of intelligence of the National Police.
The President of the National Assembly, Compañero Dr. Gustavo Porras. The National Assembly is our Branch, which has to apply the swearing in of the Authorities; the National Assembly swears in the President, the Vice President, the Deputies, all the Compañeros and Compañeras who hold Leadership Positions and who are named by the Assembly and then sworn in by the National Assembly.
Our Dear Sister, Professor Loria Dixon, she is the Secretary of the National Assembly, we have an extraordinary Secretary. I met with Loria the first time there in the Coast, there we met, in Bilwi it was, in Bilwi we met, there I discovered her, she was a Teacher, and look where she is now, at the head of the Greatest Branch of the State, the Highest Authority of the Nicaraguan State, which is the National Assembly.
Also here is the Compañero Arlin Alonso of the National Assembly, Arlin Alonso is from Chinandega.
Then there is the Ministry of the Interior, the Compañero untiring in her work, María Amelia; the also untiring Compañero in his work, Luis Cañas; and the Compañera Carla Salinas. In other words, this is the leadership of the Interior, 2 women and one man, who have a 24-hour burden of work, day and night they have a burden of work in the Interior.
This day, Dear Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Dear Families, an event was produced which I would call surprising, because you have to remember that now on several occasions, in different Public Events I have been proposing that all those people who were in prison, who were detained for undermining Sovereignty, Peace, the Nicaraguan People, since they all were agents of foreign Powers, at that moment I was speaking in general and on another occasion I also spoke in particular, I was saying that they should take them away, who don´t they take them? On another occasion we challenged the US Government that has vilified us so much, that has accused us of having “political prisoners”.
And after that in the US Congress, US citizens from the Republican Party attacked the Congress, they were not armed as the terrorists here in April were armed, murdering, burning, destroying. They were not armed, we all saw the scenes when they entered Congress, the Police did not put up much resistance against them going in. And there were two deaths, there was a riff-raff between them and there were 2 deaths. And there were thousands who entered Congress, but there were 2 deaths, and of course a lot of destruction.
Then came the persecution, and they did accuse them of attacking the Security of the great US Nation, of attacking the Democracy of the great US Nation. And the arrests began. And there in the United States in these moments, today, when there is not one single terrorist left in jail here in Nicaragua, there in the United States there are more than 1,200 of those who assaulted Congress who are described as terrorists, accused and some of them have already been sentenced to 20, 30 years of jail.
And the day before yesterday when the US Ambassador was about to leave, he was going to the US in previous days, a few days ago, yes, then Rosario said to me, why don´t we tell the Ambassador to take all these terrorists with him? You tell him, I said to her, maybe they will listen to him there. Really it never occurred to me, because it was not a matter of negotiating anything. This should be left very clear!
And the traitor Sergio Ramirez is doing his analysis and says that we are acting poorly, that we should have gotten them out in small groups, in exchange for…He talks about a negotiation. So, if we have negotiated, well I give you 20 now and you give me something, I give you another 20 and now you give me…in other words, like a mercenary, as he has been, a mercenary. No! This is a problem of Principles for us.
We know what the essence is, the thinking of all those people, who in the end are the victims of imperialist policy, they are victims, and they use them, finance them, arm them…So many stories we do not have! And then they send them to look for how to destroy the Peace, Stability of a Country, like what Nicaragua had been enjoying until 2018.
And it was an operation where there was financing, we have documentation there from the Embassies, European Embassies, European Ambassadors there with their signatures, there in the documents, where they were conspiring; from the US Embassy itself, Ambassador Laura, when Laura Dogu was the Ambassador. We have that proof.
Well, Rosario called the Ambassador and proposed it to him, and I was not expecting a positive response, a positive response never occurred to me really, in addition, who would have imagined: what will they ask of us? Are they going to ask us to lift the sanctions? No, we are not asking you to lift the sanctions! We are not asking for anything in exchange! It is a matter of Honor, Dignity, Patriotism, that they should take their mercenaries, that they take them away, like they took their mercenaries after the invasion of Cuba. There more than 1,000 mercenaries were captured, and then Fidel sent them there.
Well, the response of the Ambassador was that, since he was going to the United States he was going to consult with Higher Authorities. Well, a response, I said, which still did not confirm anything for us yet, simply a reasonable response: I am going to consult.
Then this began moving at breakneck speed, when they asked how many we are going to release…All of them! And they asked us in particular about just one person, and Álvarez as well, the Bishop Álvarez? Also! We do not want any trace to remain of those who are mercenaries of the Empire here in our Country.
Then they asked us to send the list, and the histories of the Compañeros from the Judicial Branch, the Prosecutor´s office, the Interior; well, it was an intense task, we had hours, because now at that moment they responded that they were willing to take all of them in one flight. And they were already giving us a date, which was the 9th, that the plane would be arriving on the 9th, in other words the plane would come here to Managua on the 9th, but so as to not create expectations we had kept it quiet, we could not begin to talk about the fact that this event had already been produced, because afterward if it did not happen, we would be left looking ridiculous.
So, they came through and we did logically, you have to recognize that it was taken seriously by them, as we took it very seriously as well. And when they came to ask what interest did we have. None! That they take them away, that is all. In other words, there was no attempt to negotiate. There was no negotiation here! This must be left clear. Because the Sovereignty of the County, the Dignity of the Fatherland, is not negotiated, is not negotiated!
And we prepared the list, we prepared the lists, here I have the original list which was sent to them; on that original list in total those who were going, from the entire Country, were a total of 228. That is the list that we had of all those people who had participated in acts against Sovereignty, against Peace, against the Nicaraguan People…228. In other words, we did not exclude anyone.
On that original list, here I have the original list, here are the signatures of the Magistrates who signed it: The Appeal Court, Penal Chamber 1, this Tribunal signed it yesterday on Feb 8 at 5:45pm. And they were sent the list, and all those people were running around because it was already announced that the plane was coming. And on that list, here it is, in number 92, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, ID No 001-271166-0061F, here is the name, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, number 92, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos! He was not excluded from the list, there he is!
Well, they received this list and then they communicated to us, all this was very hot, because at that hour we were making plans with the Police to move all those prisoners because they were in different places, from the prisons of San Carlos, there were coup supporters there; in Chinandega, in León, in all the Provinces of the Country they were, more in some and less in others, and the bulk were logically here in the Jail of Tipitapa which is known as the Modelo Jail, and in Judicial Support [El Chipote], here is the bulk of them.
But it was an Operation that had to be done with a lot of discipline, with a lot of organization, avoiding an accident, because all these prisoners who did not know where they were going were being brought in; they speculated, and thought that they were being taken to La Modelo, those who were outside [the capital], and those in La Modelo were being taken to who knows where. In other words, they were being moved to concentrate them in points where later they could be taken to the Air Force where the plane would be parked; and logically a coordination directly with the Army, with General Avilés who was assuring the conditions there also with the Compañeros.
The first response that they gave us to this list, this list which was the original list with really 228, so they come and respond to us, that they did not accept 4 people on the list who were there for all these crimes: one whose name is Eliseo de Jesús Castro Baltodano; another whose name is Walner Antonio Ruiz Rivera; another whose name is José Manuel Urbina Lara, pretty well known, I believe, José Manuel Urbina Lara; and another one named Jaime Enrique Navarrete Blandón.
They told us that they could not take them, they did not give us reasons, we were not going to ask for reasons, and what they told us was that, since they were now questioning the list, and starting from the principle that the list that we had turned in was who they were going to transport, they thought that we were going to fight [them over the list]…They do not want them, they do not want them! Well, how badly they pay you the people they use! How badly they pay you who they said that they loved you and financed you! They did not want them, either Eliseo, nor Walner, nor José Manuel Urbina Lara, nor Jaime Enrique Navarrete.
Then, with the process already began, now on the tarmac of the Air Force where the plane is, they were entering one by one, a really extraordinary operation, with great coordination, great discipline. And they themselves were also very orderly, they did not make a fuss, they did not go in shouting, all of them entering, going up the steps of the plane, well, maybe they were surprised, but logically they were not going to stop going up the stairs of the plane.
So they were going up the steps of the plane and there were two who refused to go up the steps of the place: one of them, Fanor Alejandro Ramos, who we understand why because of what we know. This Fanor Alejandro Ramos, 50 years of age, was in the jail of Tipitapa sentenced to 8 years for drug storage, 369 kilos of cocaine, at the time of his capture he had a Glock pistol. He had been there in 2018 accompanying the coup supporters; he appeared before the Judge of the Third Penal District and has spent 3 years and 1 month in prison.
So why did he not accept going? Surely he was afraid that now being in the United States and with that record they would open a process against him, investigate him and find connections there with drug trafficking in the United States and would end up with a life sentence, or in the electric chair, or a death sentence. So he preferred to not get on the plane.
The other one who did not want to get on the plane, as he said, was Álvarez. But before this there was another one who the Embassy did not accept, his name is, I don`t know whether I had already mentioned his name here, Eliseo de Jesús Castro Baltodano, but we are going to explain a little about why maybe they did not want to take him. He was a member of the crime band named “Crosti”, who were out making bombs and homemade weapons; they continued doing it in 2019, after 2018 they continued with these terrorist activities.
Of course, in 2006, think about it, a lot before April, on Feb 6, 2006 he had been deported from the US after having served an 8 year and 3 month sentence for aggressions against women…8 years! He wanted to go back! So this one did not want to go back and nor did the Embassy want him because they had that record of his.
Now we are going to talk about the character Álvarez. Well, when he was in line, he had arrived at the steps of the plane, to the entrance to go in, so he begins to say that he is not going, that first he would have to talk with the Bishops, meet with the Bishops, and demanded a meeting with the Bishops.
What an absurd thing! If what this is was a decision of the Nicaraguan State, which he cannot question as a Nicaraguan, he cannot question it.
How many Priests, how many Clerics, how many Bishops, how many Cardinals have been tried and are being tried and put in jails around the world? In the United States, in Canada, in Europe, there are dreadful scandals because of all the crimes that Priests, Bishops, Cardinal commit, yes, there is an internecine war where they even attack the Pope, some of them insult him, attack him. But no one in the United States thinks to say, look, I want to talk with the Bishops because they want to put me in jail. And they put them in jail, they try them and then sentence them, and there are cases that are all over out there.
I don´t know what this man was thinking, that in the face of a decision of the Nicaraguan State he comes and says that he is not obeying a Resolution of the Tribunal of Justice of the Nicaraguan State which is ordering him to leave the Country; he says that he is not obeying, and he wants to meet with the Bishops. And since several Priests were already on the plane, they had already gone in, they had gone up peacefully, they are now in the United States, so he said that to be able to leave that all the Priests should be called, because he would have to talk to them, that they should come down from the plane to talk to him and that the Bishops should also show up to also talk with him.
To cut a long story short, we could not, because that they would not allow, in the agreement it did not allow the US Authorities to forcibly board someone who did not want to go to the United States, we could not force him to board. If it were a deportation, no problem, because what does the Nicaraguan State do to him? Simply, if he does not want to board the plane, he is put on the plane, he is put in handcuffs and he goes like that where he has to go. But since they explained that they could not accept a person who did not want to go, and since this man did not want to, so, he turns around!
He has been treated in an incredible manner, like no other prisoner in the history of this Country. I was a prisoner for 7 years and one month, and I never knew the history of a prisoner who they would have treated in that way as this Man was treated.
Well, now he is in the Modelo Jail, logically, if he is a common run of the mill man, “the habit doesn´t make the monk”, we know that well, we know it well that “the habit doesn´t make the monk”. There what we have are the behavior of arrogance of someone who considers himself now the head of the Church of Nicaragua, the leader of the Latin American Church, and he must be thinking about opting to occupy the position of His Holy Father the Pope. Yes, he is deranged, he is deranged!
But well, that they will have to determine now, one, the Judicial Authorities who are logically thoroughly on the case of this man, and the Medical Authorities who will have to treat him, because now that he arrived at La Modelo, he who arrived was a madman; in other words, he is not courageous, he cannot have the courage of Christ, who put up with whippings and suffered crucifixion…No, he did not even accept that they stick him in a cell where there are hundreds of prisoners!
I know those cells well, I lived in those cells for more than 7 years, I know them well and it is not to die over, the cell is a cell and that is it.
Ah, but since he was held in his home, special food was prepared for him every day, Doctors showed up twice a day, the sisters came to cook for him, and in a mansion! It is not that he lived in a “House for the People”, it is not that he lived in a house like the one that Cardinal Brenes lives in there in Altagracia, no, that is a humble home. That mansion, he lives in a mansion, and there the whole Family lives, each one has their mansion; so he is irritated because now he is in the prison, yes he is in jail.
This is the case of this man who simply refused to obey, in other words, it is the anger of not obeying the decision of the Nicaraguan Authorities, of the Nicaraguan State, because he willingly leaves for Miami, goes to join Báez there, to rant and rave with Báez and company; but since it is the Nicaraguan State which is ordering the deportation, then there it is his anger, rage, fury, and well, he decided it, there he is in prison.
Then, 11 prisoners who were in Judicial Support [El Chipote], 11 in total, all those Religious, Priests, 11; Benito Enrique Martínez Gamboa, Priest, did not make a fuss and got on the plane, and now is in the United States; Raúl Antonio Vega Gonzáles, Deacon, also got on the plane; Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano, Priest, also got on the plane; Ramiro Reynaldo Tijerino Chávez, also got on the plane, Priest; Oscar Danilo Benavidez Dávila, Priest, also got on the plane; Sergio José Cárdenas Flores, a Lay religious person, also got on the plane; José Luis Díaz Cruz, Priest, also got on the plane; Melkin Antonio Centeno Sequeira, Seminarian, also got on the plane; Darvin Esteyling Leiva Mendoza, Seminarian, also got on the plane; Manuel Antonio Obando Cortedano, Lay religious, also got on the plane; and Wilberto Artola Mejía, Layman, also got on the plane.
In other words, 11, among them Priests, Religious and Laity, all of them got on the plane, left on the plane.
Who are the only Priests who remain detained in the Country? Well, one, Álvarez, did not want to obey what the Law ordered, what the Nicaraguan State ordered.
Then there are two Priests who are detained, one, from Boaco, who has accusations for rape of a 13 year old girl, he is from Boaco, the Family of the girl accused him there, it has nothing to do with politics, simply a common crime, and he is in the Tipitapa Penitentiary System called “Jorge Navarro.” The other Priest who is detained is from Nandaime, his crime are wounds and physical and psychological violence, I believe you remember this case where he appeared with a machete, that was public, it has nothing to do with politics, simply he came out attacking with the machete, fighting with a woman, so he is detained.
Those are the only ones who are detained, these two for common crimes; and the other for being a terrorist, the Bishop, for being a terrorist. In this way we want to clarify properly how these events happened that led to placing in the United States of 222 of those who they called “political prisoners”. They are now there in the airport, they now received them in the airport, an airport there in the United States, they are now being treated and are very happy, I saw some shots from Colombian television, they passed some shots there of them.
Well, this is nothing more than a Message for Peace, for Stability, so that the Nicaraguan People might be convinced that all that we are doing is to ensure Peace.
And on the part of the Government of the United States, as I was saying, we have not asked for absolutely nothing, nothing! This is not an exchange, this is not “I give you this and you give me that…” No! this is a matter of Principle, of Dignity, and what it does is confirm that they are returning to a Country which was the one that has used them, their Rulers, not the US People, their Leaders have used them to sow terror, death, destruction here in Nicaragua.
This is what is left very clear, notice, this is the lesson that we Nicaraguans have to learn, and give Thanks to God, of course we give Thanks to God because I really never believed, I was listening there that Rosario was communicating and that they were saying this, they were saying that, now this one has to be removed, that now everything was ready; but I was saying: until the plane is seen here, until the plane is here we cannot think that now…
And Thanks to God the Miracle was produced, because this People, the People of Chief Diriangén, the People of Andrés de Castro and José Dolores Estrada, the People of Benjamín Zeledón, the People of General Sandino, the People of Carlos, the People of Tomás, the People of Padre Miguel d´Escoto who would be turning 90 years of age, the People of so many Heroes and Martyrs, where the Heroism of the Nicaraguan People has been able to be cultivated and flourished continuously in spite of the fact that there have been onslaughts, there have been onslaughts seeking to wipe out the Dignity, the Heroism of the Nicaraguan People.
This People, Thanks to God, has the Strength to wage the biggest Battles, face the greatest challenges, and achieve Peace, like that Peace which we have been able to win back after April, this Peace which we are enjoying now, and that now that the coup supporters left, the mercenaries, well, we breathe more Peace here in Nicaragua…Thanks to God! And long live Nicaragua, Blessed and Always Free!