The Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega took advantage of the official ceremony for National Dignity Day, held last Monday in Managua, to express his solidarity with the Cuban regime and declare that «the people of Cuba are among those who have long since lost their fear of fear».
The fragment was shared yesterday by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its social media under the hashtag #CubaNoEstáSola, expressing gratitude for the words of the Nicaraguan leader.
In the audio, Ortega states: "When we have a people like the people of Cuba, who have been facing threats of invasions for over 60 years, but the people of Cuba are among those who have long since lost their fear of fear."
The central theme of the speech was the phrase "one must not be afraid of fear," used by Ortega in reference to Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela in the face of pressure from Washington. "They would like the people to be terrified by those threats, but how many hells have we endured," added the dictator during his speech.
Ortega also took the opportunity to attack the Nicaraguan political prisoners exiled in the United States in 2023, accusing them of seeking an invasion against his government, and recalled the protests of April 2018 as "the last hell" that his regime overcame.
Sectors of the Nicaraguan opposition interpreted the speech as "confrontational, erratic, and revealing of the regime's fear" in the face of international isolation, pointing out that the real fear lies with the dictatorship and not with the civilian population.
Solidarity between Managua and Havana has a long history of material exchanges and mutual political support.
Nicaragua sent food to Cuba on several occasions, including 50 containers of rice and beans in December 2021 and a ship with donations after the fire at the Supertankers Base in Matanzas in August 2022.
For its part, Cuba sent one million doses of the Abdala vaccine to Nicaragua in October 2021.
In July 2024, the Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz attended the event for the 43rd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution in Managua, where he declared, "With Cuba and Nicaragua, we will have Revolution for a long time."
Months later, in May 2025, Ortega and Rosario Murillo made a diplomatic mistake by congratulating Díaz-Canel on the “123rd Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Cuba” on May 20, a date that the Cuban authorities themselves officially reject.
Ortega's speech comes at a time of increased pressure from the Trump administration on the three regimes. Weeks before the event, the Nicaraguan dictator had described the American president as "mentally deranged" for sanctioning his children and for his policy toward Venezuela and Cuba.
In February 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the regimes of Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela of being "enemies of humanity" for creating migration crises.
The rhetoric of Ortega regarding "fear" contrasts with the reality experienced by the Cuban people: decades of repression, structural scarcity, and an unprecedented immigration crisis, the result of 67 years of communist dictatorship dressed up by the solidarity speeches of regimes where citizens live under the yoke of true States of terror.
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