This year was different from celebrations since 2021 when there were perhaps 5,000 people invited – this year there were about 50,000! It took place in the Plaza de la Fe where the July 19th celebrations were held for years and years with open attendance of hundreds of thousands and little organization. That changed in 2020 with Covid. This time invitations were made and organized by the municipalities all over the country and those invited road in on Chinese buses down to the plaza. You can see from the photo, the organization was phenomenal to accommodate the 50,000.
The fun began on July 17 when the country celebrates the day that the last Somoza president fled the country as well as most of the feared Somoza National Guard. It was clear that day that the Sandinista revolution had triumphed.
July 18 is filled with vigils in every neighborhood and town to welcome in July 19. At midnight beautiful fireworks displays are seen brightening the sky. I went to the vigils with family and friends first downtown to the Simon Bolivar avenue – named after the famous Venezuelan revolutionary leader whose dream was for all of Latin America to unify in order to resist colonizers like the United States and European nations. At the south end of the boulevard is a roundabout with a huge depiction of another Venezuelan revolutionary leader – Hugo Chavez – who came and spoke at a number of July 19 celebrations. I was fortunate to see him in 2004.
The atmosphere was like a huge party with dancing and singing and people just hanging out with family and friends. Then we went to another vigil nearby in the popular barrio known as San Antonio. They always go all out and this year was no exception. The Venezuelan band best known for Las Casas del Carton (the houses made out of cardboard) and No Basta Rezar (it’s not enough to pray) called the Guaraguao played at this vigil to thousands of people in this tiny neighborhood, filled up to overflowing with others like us who come to participate. Once again, at midnight there were fireworks everywhere.
July 19 begins with people all over the country carrying out “Dianas” which are car parades with FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) flags and signs and people chanting and singing. In every town and city there are festivities in commemoration of July 19 – the day celebrated as the culmination of the struggle against the Somoza (and US) dictatorship. The US supported 3 Somoza’s, a father and 2 sons, during 45 years of their governments’ imprisoning, torturing and killing anyone considered in opposition to their rule. My husband tells me that it was a crime to be a young man as the dictatorship assumed you were really a Sandinista.
As the 50,000 invited to the evening celebration are coming in by bus to the plaza down by lake Zolotlan, thousands of other people are lining roads – the roads that co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo will pass to get to the Plaza del Fe. I drove down with my son and parked by a television station then walked about a half mile. We joined in the contagious anticipation. Daniel always drives himself – of course there are police cars in front and in back and police lining the road – but not getting in the way of onlookers who want to see their co-presidents. About six o’clock they slowly passed with windows down waving at everyone. I was particularly excited, like a kid on Christmas morning (even though I’m 70) and ran down about four blocks to get in front of the caravan in order to see them a second time – and I did (there is definitely a groupie atmosphere around Daniel – he started fighting for a free country at age 14, he was imprisoned and tortured for seven years and he’s won five elections, the last with more than 75% of the vote)!! Then families continue their parade and picnic-like evening accompanying the celebration and watching it on huge screens placed around the country. I was impressed that at every event I mainly saw families and friends – very few drunks!
Probably most Sandinistas spend the evening of the 19th at home with their families watching the incredible views of 50,000 mainly youth, dancing to the first 90 minutes of familiar revolutionary music. Then some of the special guests were introduced and given time to share a message. One of the things that Ana Kuznetsova the chairwoman of the Russian Duma said was “Under the leadership of our President Vladimir Putin, Russia fully supports those who defend their Freedom, their Values, their Children, their Future.” Then there was a joyful address by Ma Hui, Vice Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He said “I would also like to convey the sincere greetings of all the 100 million members of the Communist Party of China to our Sandinista Compañeros and to the Heroic People of Nicaragua.” “In a world full of transformations and turbulence, the risks and challenges faced by all countries on the planet are growing. We are pleased to note that under the leadership of Co-Presidents Comandante Daniel Ortega and Compañera Rosario Murillo, the Nicaraguan people, closely grouped around the Sandinista National Liberation Front, firmly defend their Sovereignty and Dignity, and persist in following the path of development adapted to the realities of their own country, constantly reaching new achievements in your socio-economic development, for which we express our congratulations.” To read all the speeches, including those of the Co-presidents.
Daniel spoke of many of the wars waged today by the US: “And that is no more nor less a plan, by [Israel], concocted with the Yankee government and with the complicity of the European governments to disappear the Palestinian State, as they have said it very clearly and openly. They are self-confessed criminals! There they are armed, given weapons by the Europeans, by the United States, because they want to take over the whole Region, and they are doing it….”
“They are murdering every day! Even media in the United States or in Europe are now beginning to report the crimes. And what does the United Nations do? The United Nations is nothing but an instrument of the imperialist countries which want to dominate the world, even if the World itself disappears with the risk of Humanity disappearing, because they have no qualms about bombing everywhere.”
“We have already seen how they launched the armed provocation, via a plan put together by the United States and Israel to bomb Iran on the pretext that what the Iranians were working on were atomic weapons. Iran is a huge nation, it used to be the Persian Empire, it has a population of 90 million inhabitants, it has great wealth, undertakes a great deal of work, with a lot of resources. And the Iranians, complying with the United Nations standards, had presented a plan so as to work the uranium and use it in peaceful activities as they have done so for some time and that’s why they have many plants generating nuclear energy with uranium, which are energy producing plants which are cheaper and safer than the plants that are installed via traditional networks.”
As always Co-President Ortega takes the opportunity to give a history lesson since so many attendees are teenagers. This time he talked about the Spaniards, the British and the United States; especially the invasion by William Walker and his men which was supported by the US government. Walker named himself president, reinstated slavery and made English the national language. Needless to say he was expelled with help from Nicaragua’s neighbors. Walker tried again a few years later and the Hondurans put him in front of a firing squad. This reminds me of a popular song written and sung often during the years of Reagan’s war against Nicaragua called El Yanqui se Va a Joder (the Yankees are going to get their butts kicked). In spite of US sanctions on Nicaragua which cut off much needed loans, the Nicaraguans overall support their government because it is the only one that has brought progress and development to the majority of the people with free education and healthcare; with 90% food security; with the best roads and infrastructure in the region, with one of the highest percentages of renewable energy in the world and 90.6% of the population have electricity; with parks and stadiums everywhere – a real emphasis on the right to recreation and sports and so much more. This country won’t be easy to beat through coup attempts like in 2018, hundreds of millions of dollars from US institutions like USAID, the NED, Freedom House going to the opposition to try to undermine the government. The Nicaraguan example will not easily be stopped and many countries will follow in its foot prints.