HAVANA TIMES – Daniel Ortega decided to skip the UN General Assembly in New York but sent his work horse foreign minister, Denis Moncada, to give his version of recent events in Nicaragua, blaming the United States and terrorists disguized as peaceful protestors for the 5+ months of unrest in the Central American country.

Moncada happily announced that what Ortega calls an attempted coup was defeated and that the peace loving government and people are on the road to normality.

The following is the English version of Moncada’s speech at the UN.

Statement by Mr. Denis Moncada Colindres, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Nicaragua, at the 73rd Session of the General Assembly

October 1, 2018

His Excellency, Ant6nio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations

Her Excellency, Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the General Assembly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of the Member States.

Ladies and Gentlemen Delegates,

Receive the Message of Peace from the People of Nicaragua and from PresidentComandante Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo.

Three years after the Adoption of the 2030 Agenda, we continue to witness a world in crisis originated by savage capitalism, by interference and violations of international law and the sovereignty of our peoples, with the use of force, attempts of coups d’état and destabilizations that threaten the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals proposed in the 2030 Agenda. Nicaragua has resisted the attempts of a coup d’état; our country has once again won peace, fraternal coexistence and the progressive return of normal daily life. The attempted coup d’état that we have conquered in Nicaragua is the result of this interventionism and has left us with serious damage and sequels, such as economic damage, death, destruction, and terrorism. Terrorism disguised as peaceful protest, atrociously killing citizens, policemen, setting on fire public and private property, assaults, violations, extortion, torture, and cruel inhumane degrading treatment. In the region, Nicaragua has a high recognition as a factor of regional stability, peace and security with important positive indicators in economic, political, social development, poverty reduction, gender equity and citizen security, being a barrier against international organized crime, Maras and Gangs, terrorism and narcoactivity, all state policies that we continue to develop. We assure and reiterate that in Nicaragua we love peace, we strengthen security, and we promote and defend human rights in an integral way. The Government and the Nicaraguan people defend the principle of independence and sovereignty, as established by the Charter of the United Nations, therefore, we demand and require the cessation of any interventionist policy that violates international law, with interventionist actions in Nicaragua and against the brother peoples of our America and the world. The Government and the people of Nicaragua have worked in a sustained manner to meet the objectives of Agenda 2030. Until April of this year our country was experiencing sustained and approximate economic growth of 4.7% per year. Our projects and socialeconomic programs to eradicate general poverty at the national level, managed to reduce it from 42.5% in 2009, to 24.9% in 2016. Extreme povelty went from 14.6% in 2009, to 6.9% in 2016. Today we are once again facing the threat of the United States to curb the social, economic and cultural development of our people. We denounce these interventionism threats as they have introduced a bill in their Congress that orders the international financial organizations to oppose the granting of loans to Nicaragua. For Nicaragua, to contribute to international peace is to achieve general and complete nuclear disarmament, that is why we have signed and ratified the first Treaty on the

Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, we call on other countries to ratify this historic Treaty.

The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua has supported the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and communication between the authorities on both sides. We welcome the rapprochement between the two Koreas and the realization of the third inter-Korean summit as well as the Joint Declaration of September in Pyongyang that the two Korean leaders agreed on and that is seen as a breakthrough to alleviate the tension of the peninsula and the substantial elimination of the danger of war in the whole peninsula. The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua hopes that nuclear weapons will be dismantled in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and that the countries involved will cooperate and, in this way, ensure firm and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula. The Government of Nicaragua supports the nuclear negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and E3 / EU + 3, which resulted in the completion of the Joint Action Plan (JCPOA) on July 14, 2015. We emphasize that this agreement demonstrates that dialogue and diplomacy are the most appropriate means of solving these problems, as an essential part of making multilateralism work. Nicaragua condemns the criminal blockade against our Sister Republic of Cuba and all its extrate1Titorial measures and ramifications. Nicaragua rejects any coercive economic measure to try to bend the will and spirit of freedom and sovereignty of peoples and governments. It is unacceptable for our country the use unilateral coercive economic measures as a selective political instrument to illegally change governments. This year we will once again vote against the unjust blockade. Our Sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its Bolivarian People and the legitimate Government of President Nicolas Maduro, have all our Solidarity and we have condemned the assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro and the threat of military intervention against the People and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It is necessary to continue supporting decolonization in the world, supporting the Palestinian, Saharawi, Puerto Rican and the Falkland Islands of Argentina. Nicaragua advocates for the conformation of the Two States, the State of Israel and the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its Capital, according to the 1967 borders, living in Peace and Harmony. We reiterate our total Solidarity with the Government and People of Syria in their fight against International Terrorism and in the defense of their Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity. Humanity continues clamoring for Peace, even after 73 years, our Organization has not managed to fully comply with the objectives set in relation to Peace. Given this lamentable situation, the call for “Reinvention” of the UN, is urgent, as proposed by the Nicaraguan Priest and Foreign Minister, Miguel DEscoto during his Presidency in this General Assembly. To achieve this, we must promote the indispensable transformation, in order for this Organization to serves the interests of all its members and the whole of humanity. We wish to emphasize that during the Presidency of this Assembly, in 2008, Father Miguel D’Escoto (RIP), whom we rightfully call the Chancellor of Dignity of Nicaragua, developed and fought until the end, precisely with these Ideas, fulfilling the Mandate of Nicaragua to lay the foundations for the discussion of these transformations, with its Proposal Document: The Reinvention of the United Nations. We need urgent actions to combat climate change. The principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities remains in force and the Big emitters and those responsible for depredation, degradation, and imbalances in nature must recognize our Losses and Damages and contribute with the recovery to the Life of Mother Earth and of the Peoples of the World. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals we need to repeal the unilateral coercive measures that are in violation of international law and that impede the development plans of our countries. We must work for Justice, Peace, Respect, Dialogue, Sovereign Security, in the World. To do this, we must promote the indispensable Transformations, so that this Organization serves the interests of all its Members. Our Government and our People advocates a World with Values, where Human Beings can count on the best of ourselves, to foster the best possible conditions for Fair, Sustainable, Equitable, Secure and sovereign Development, in which the Advances of Science and Technology, reflected in all areas of our Lives, are accessible and shared by all. Once again, our greetings and the hope of the Nicaraguan people, that in this 73rd session, the Commitment that we assume will result in an open and profound Process of Reflection, towards Compulsory Transformation, for the reinvention and democratization of the United Nations.

Madam president,

To conclude, we affirm the Commitment to continue fighting for Peace, which is the priority that the World has, that our People have, and that the conflicts that arise in different Regions of our Planet can be overcome, through Dialogue, through Negotiation and above all, free from the use or threat of the use of Force, which is what most of our Peoples long for, from the Peoples of the Great Powers, to the Small States in Population, small in development , but great in their Values and in their History.

Thank you so much.