o C. Sandino, March 20th 1929
An original project presented by the Army in Defence of Nicaragua’s National Sovereignty to the representatives of the twenty one Latin American States
EXORDIO
“Varied and diverse are the theories that have been conceived to achieve either a coming together, an alliance or a federation taking in all twenty one parts of our America into a single nationality. But never until today has that union, so longed for by the whole Latin American people, been so imperative and necessary, nor, until now, has the urgency been so present along with the means that currently exist to reach that end, historically prescribed as the greatest task facing the citizens of Latin America.
We have already had the chance to declare that “the first mistake of our Latin-Indian America was not to have consulted the opening of the Panama Canal; but we can still avoid a further mistake in relation to the Nicaraguan Canal.”
Deeply convinced as we are that North American capitalism has reached the final stage of its development, thus transforming itself into imperialism, and that it no longer abides by theories of law and justice and shows no respect at all for the immutable principles of independence of the different Latin American nationalities, we consider the alliance of our Latin American States to be indispensable and of the utmost urgency, faced with the imperialist pretensions of the United States of North America or the pretensions of any other power intent on subjecting us to their interests.
Before analyzing the matter further, I would like to be allowed to sketch out here how, why and under what circumstances we have conceived the idea of the immediate need to form the alliance of Latin American States which we propose in this document.
The conditions in which we have been carrying out our armed struggle in Nicaragua against the North American invaders and their allies has convinced us that our persistent resistance, now three years old “could last two, three, four or who knows how many years more, but at the end of the fight, the enemy, owning all the elements and all the resources, will have to declare themselves victorious, given that we have found ourselves alone in our action, without being able to count on the indispensable support, official or unofficial, of any government in our Latin America or that of any other country.” And it was that sombre vision of the future which impelled us to work out a better way of preventing the enemy claiming victory. Our thought worked relentlessly round the clock, to develop an optimistic panorama of our, tomorrow triumphant, America.
We were equally convinced that the government of the United States of North America, quashing Central American sovereignty, would never abandon its drive to realize its ambitious projects in this part of our America, projects which for the most part imply the future maintenance of North American power, even if in doing so they destroy civilizations and sacrifice innumerable human lives.
On the other hand, an isolated Central America, with Nicaragua abandoned, counting only on the pain and anguish of the Latin American people, would be even less able to prevent imperialist greed grabbing Central American land to build the inter-oceanic canal and establish their planned naval base. In our own time, we saw clearly that the silence of the Latin American governments as they observed the Central American tragedy implied tacit approval of the aggressive and insolent attitude of the United States of North America against a vast area of the continent; an aggression which showed, in its turn, a collective collapse of the Latin American States’ right to self-determination.
Under the influence of these considerations, we came to understand the absolute necessity that the intense drama lived by the mothers, wives and orphans of Central America, denied their loved ones on the battlefields of Las Segovias by the soldiers of North American imperialism, should not be in vain, nor that they be cheated, but rather that the moment should be used to consolidate Latin American nationality, rejecting all treaties, pacts and agreements made with legalistic pretensions that, one way or another, damage the absolute sovereignty, not just of Nicaragua, but of the other Latin American States as well.
To achieve that, nothing is more logical, more decisive or more vital, than the fusion of the twenty one States of our America into one unique Latin American nationality, so as to be able to subsume within that unity the rights over the inter-oceanic canal across Central American territory, over the Gulf of Fonseca, in waters also belonging to Central America and likewise all the other areas enclosed in the vast territorial extension from the Rio Bravo to the southern Magellan Straits, including Latin American islands useful either as strategic points or as communication routes in the common interest of all Latin American States.
However, along with other serious problems that affect the stability of Latin American States, what we are concerned to defend, without further delay, are the naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca and the inter-oceanic canal route across Nicaragua, places, one day not far off, that will come to act both as a magnet and as the key to the world and, thus, these, under Latin American sovereign control, will serve as a bulwark for the defence of Latin America’s unconditional independence and as a marvellous valve to develop its overall material and spiritual progress .”
To that end, the project to be made known to this great assembly proposes the solution to the problems explained above in terms of the following BASIC POINTS.
PROJECT
1) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares the Monroe Doctrine null and void thus ending the use of that doctrine to intervene in the domestic and foreign policies of the Latin American States.
2) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares frank recognition of the right to alliance of the twenty one States of Continental Latin America and thus establishes one single NATIONHOOD to be known as LATIN AMERICAN NATION, thus bringing into effect Latin American citizenship.
3) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to establish periodic conferences exclusively of representatives of the twenty one States of the Latin American Nation without interference in them from any other nation.
4) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares constituted the Latin American Court of Justice, the body which will serve as the highest court in relation to problems that affect or may affect the Latin American States in whatever form and in which the so called Monroe Doctrine has tried to exercise its influence.
5) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation resolves that the Latin American Court of Justice will be based in Central America territory between the inter-oceanic canal route through Nicaragua and the naval base to be established in the Gulf of Fonseca without this implying any special privilege for the Central American States since by making that region the seat of the Latin American Court of Justice the idea is to demonstrate to the world the joint vigilance of the twenty one Latin American States of that geographic area, which in this case is, as no other geographic territory, a strategic point for the defence of the integral Sovereignty of Latin American Nation.
6) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that it recognizes the Latin American Court of Justice as the sole and supreme arbitration authority in cases of claims, frontier disputes and any other case which in one way or other affects or could affect the close and firm harmony which should govern relations between the twenty one Latin American States.
7) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to proceed to the immediate organization of an army made up of five thousand two hundred and fifty citizens from students between the ages of eighteen and twenty five as well as teachers of law and social sciences. These teachers like all members of this army should be physically fit for military service. An indispensable prerequisite in order to join the army is the possession of Latin American citizenship. This army does not constitute the effective Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance, but rather the fundamental base with which Latin American Nation will have available for the defence and sustenance of its Sovereignty. This effective base of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance constitutes at the same time a symbolic representation of agreement existing between the twenty one Latin American States and likewise their decision to cooperate together in defence of the interests of their own Latin American Nation.
8) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that each of the twenty one member States accredited before it provide two hundred and fifty citizens to form the aforementioned army.
9) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that each of its governments supplies from their public Treasury a fixed and proportional amount for the sustenance of the effective base of the Land and Sea forces of the Latin American Alliance.
10) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to name the citizen who is President of the Latin American Court of Justice as Commander in Chief of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance.
11) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation approves that the duration of the functions of the citizen who is President of the Latin American Court of Justice and thus Commander in Chief of the Land and Sea forces of the Latin American Alliance should be six years, on the understanding that by the express agreement of the representatives of the twenty one Latin American States that command could be revoked should the individual’s permanence in such high office threaten the correct discharge of their functions in relation to the Supreme Tribunal.
12) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that the election of the President of the Latin American Court of Justice will be held in the following order : Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Panama, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
13) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation establishes that the election of the President of the Latin American Court of Justice, immediate Commander in Chief of the Land and Sea forces of the Latin American Alliance, will be carried out exclusively by citizens of the State charged with designating the functionary in question considering that it is the citizens of each State who are best qualified to judge the public and private virtues of the citizen to be elected to such a high post.
14) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation invests in the Representatives of the governments of the twenty one Latin American States before the Latin American Court of Justice the right of veto in the event that the acceptance in the heart of this high Tribunal of the President-Elect might imply some damage or prejudice to the optimum realization of its objectives.
15) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that the choice of the two hundred and fifty citizens to represent each State in the heart of the Land and Sea forces of the Latin American Alliance should be carried out by means of holding special competitions called by the governments of the twenty one Latin American States. The two hundred and fifty students that win these competitions in each State, thus proving their physical and intellectual aptitude, will be the ones whom each State sends as its authentic representatives to the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance.
16) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that each of their governments will name a fixed number of teachers of Law and Social Sciences who will carry out their duties in accordance with Basic Point Seven. The two hundred and fifty winning citizens in the competitions in each State will be the ones who elect from among the group of teachers of their respective State the person who will represent that State in the heart of the Latin American Court of Justice.
17) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that one of the fundamental obligations for both the members of the Latin American Court of Justice and for the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance will be to present a detailed report of their activities during their period in office to the Representative Conferences of the twenty one Latin American States which this Conference has agreed will be held periodically on a timetable that cannot be deferred.
18) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that both the members of the Latin American Court of Justice and of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance will affirm to the Representative Conference of the twenty one Latin American States their loyalty to the constitutive principles of the Latin American Nation and to the Organic Law and the regulation established for its operation, committing themselves to be vigilant and to assure that others are vigilant in absolute loyalty to the conservation of the Sovereignty and inalienable independence of the Latin American Nation whose trust has been placed in them.
19) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that the ranks and titles issued by the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance to its members will be recognized as fully valid in each and every one of the Latin American States.
20) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agree that each of the Governments of their respective States accredited before it accepts the permanent presence of a member of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance in their Military High Command thus making even more clear the vital link between each one of the governments of the twenty one States and the Forces of the Latin American Alliance.
21)The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation prescribe that it is absolutely forbidden to all members of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance, from the day of their joining that body, to belong to any political party or to carry out such activities within or beyond the Latin American Nation.
22) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to empower the President of the Latin American Court of Justice and Commander of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance to be able to propose to the governments of the twenty one Latin American States the diplomats, specialists in international relations and experts whose ability has been demonstrated in practice in the bodies indicated.
23) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation designates a Commission charged with formulating the Organic law and its regulation for both the Latin American Court of Justice and for the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance, bringing them into effect for their approval by the representatives of the Governments of the twenty one Latin American States.
24) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that the Latin American Court of Justice and also the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance recognize and strive to maintain the absolute sovereignty of the twenty one Latin American States and that the activities they carry out in the course of their duties in no way implies any limitation on the Sovereignty of any one of the twenty one Latin American States since what might be considered a limitation on their absolute Sovereignty is carried out in accordance with the principle of Latin American Nationhood which each and every one of the Latin American States have formed, by conceding to this idea of common defence and well being, everything that, without affecting in any case each State’s rules of internal life, tends to strengthen and consolidate the aforesaid Latin American Nationhood.
25) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that in the event of the outbreak of civil war in any of the States signatories to the Pact of Alliance, the belligerent parties have the right to request, if they deem it convenient, armed contingents of the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance; contingents which, given their neutral character will constitute an effective guarantee for all those who, always assuming they have sufficient reason to justify their case to the Latin American Court of Justice, do not want to put themselves under the rule of either of the belligerent parties.
26) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declare categorically that the only power authorized to carry out the works for the Inter-Oceanic Canal and the construction of a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca on Central American territory and, likewise, any other work of common utility to the twenty one Latin American States, is the Latin American Nation in its direct provision and without compromising in the least the full Sovereignty of any State or States signatory to the Pact of Alliance.
27)The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation clarifies that if current material development and economic resources are not enough for the moment to carry out the Inter-Oceanic communication on Central American territory or for the establishment of a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca or in any other strategic place for the defence of the Sovereignty and Independence of the Latin American Nation, the States signatories to the Pact of Alliance will reserve the exclusive rights for the construction of establishment of the aforementioned works, ensuring that under no circumstances will the Latin American Nation permit the alienation, sale, cession or lease of the works in question or any others that may compromise the stability of Latin America’s Sovereignty and Independence in favour of a foreign power or powers beyond the Latin American Nation.
28) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that on the carrying out of any of the aforementioned works, be it the Inter-Oceanic Canal or the Naval Base, the Latin American Nation is committed to demand that the company or companies charged with carrying out those works indemnify the cities or States affected if the execution of those works should prejudice their life and interests.
29) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that in the case of aggression by one or more powers against the Latin American Nation, the Latin American States will proceed unanimously to express their formal protest against the aggressor power or powers insisting they together withdraw immediately their diplomatic representatives.
30) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation approves that if after the representations mentioned in the previous Basic Point there is no satisfactory result, the Governments of the twenty one Latin American States will proceed to automatically confiscate the interests and investments of the aggressor powers within the limits of the Latin American Nation so as to sustain with those expropriated resources the war which will have resulted from the aggression of the foreign power or powers.
31) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that, should a given international conflict not merit outright military hostilities, the Governments of the twenty one member States will use economic boycott in defence of Latin American Sovereignty against the power or powers that instigated the conflict, annulling any acquisition such as the sale of products with the power or powers that may have provoked the implementation of this measure.
32) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to adopt immediately, following the signing of the Pact of Alliance, the Constitution of a Committee of Latin American Bankers, officially supported, which will have as its aim to devise and execute the plan by means of which the Latin American Nation may pay off with its own funds existing contracts between the United States of North America and the Latin American States, with said Committee of Bankers taking responsibility for the construction of material works and means of communication and transport as well as issuing loans which the Latin American States may need, given the already existing treaties they may have with the United States of North America.
33) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agree that the Latin American Nation may use all diplomatic and peaceful means available under current circumstances so as to acquire, by means of the Committee of Latin American Bankers, the rights to the Panama Canal over which the United States of North America seeks to maintain its control so as to leave the Canal under the absolute Sovereign Control of the Latin American Nation.
34) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation entrusts to the Latin American Court of Justice the mission of making a detailed investigation into the States of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua in relation to the loss of life and material interests suffered by Latin American citizens in the States mentioned, during the occupations and invasions ordered by the several governments of the United States of North America.
35) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation resolves that in accordance with the report made by the Latin American Court of Justice, the Latin American Nation may proceed to demand the immediate and complete abandonment by the United States of North America of those States suffering intervention and the immediate recovery of those States’ territory used as naval bases or supply bases or for other purposes of potential aggression that threaten to undermine the Sovereignty of the Latin American States.
36) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation declares that neither the Latin American Court of Justice nor any particular State during the proceedings of the aforementioned detailed investigation may take into account any supposed obligation of the Latin American States to the government of the United States of North America incurred by defending themselves in the course of occupations or invasions violating their sovereignty carried out by troops of the United States of North America, since the consequent loss of North American life or material interests are simply the result of the exercise of the right to self defence, inherent to all peoples victims of aggression.
37) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to adopt measures conducive to ensuring that the entry of citizens of the United States of North America into Latin American territory does not entail in any way a threat to the interests of any kind of the Latin American Nation, likewise preventing North American financial capital from penetrating in the shape of investments or under different forms, thus annulling the use by the yankee government of its much used formula “in protection of the lives and interests of north americans” so as to violate the Sovereignty of Latin American States.
38) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agree to unify the customs tariffs of the twenty one States, applying, furthermore, to the newly unified rate, a discount of 25% on the exports and imports of the products of the twenty one States in the markets of the Latin American Nation. Cultural expressions, books, magazines, paintings and other inputs necessary for the development of the sciences and the arts will enjoy the utmost freedom of circulation in the twenty one Latin American States.
39) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that its accredited Governments should carry out a systematic exchange of students of the Social and Economic Sciences of the twenty one Latin American States so that each one of these may create the corresponding scholarships for a fixed number of students for each State.
40) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees that its accredited Governments foment, in particular, tourism by Latin Americans so as to promote familiarity and mutual acquaintance among the citizens of the twenty one Latin American States, offering to tourists, among other concessions, a fare reduction of 10% in the railway systems, passenger ships, airplanes and other means of communication and transport that exist or may come to be established in the twenty one States of our America.
41) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation agrees to name a special Commission to establish criteria and call for the relevant competitions to make it possible for Latin American scientists and intellectuals to formulate how to constitute the Committee of Latin American Bankers, the best way to ensure that the twenty one Latin American States get to know each other, how to reincorporate the Panama Canal into the Latin American Nation and, in general, work out the particular basis for each of the initiatives implied by this Project and what they require.
42) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation proclaims its recognition as the FLAG OF THE LATIN AMERICAN NATION the banner which the ARMY IN DEFENCE OF THE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY OF NICARAGUA has the honour of presenting to the said Conference. This flag expresses in a harmonious union of colours the symbol of the fusion of each of the insignias of the twenty one Latin American States, together congregated in one sole, strong and glorious Nation.
43) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation adopts as the official motto of the Latin American Alliance entrusted to the Latin American Court of Justice and to the Land and Sea Forces of the Latin American Alliance the phrase that interprets the fruitful destiny of this nation now arising in world history, marking new frontiers, adapting Mexico’s vibrant new generation and its motto of profound, creative concerns “THE SPIRIT WILL SPEAK FOR MY RACE”.
44) The Conference of Representatives of the twenty one member States of the Latin American Nation, joining in fraternal consensus the Governments and peoples of the twenty one States, clarifies as the naming of the place in which the Latin American Court of Justice will be based as SIMON BOLIVAR, and raising up as a homage full of admiration to the memory of this outstanding creator of Latin America’s independence, in the Hall of Honour of the Latin American Court of Justice, a monument crowned by the founding image of the greatest maker of free peoples.
CONCLUSION
Citizen representatives of the twenty one Latin American States :
On thus presenting the original PROJECT that the Army in Defence of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua offers to this great assembly, with the high purpose of effecting the immediately urgent alliance of the twenty one diverse States of the Latin American Nation, we are indeed fully conscious of the enormous historical responsibility we are taking on in relation to our America and the World. For that reason we have not attempted to present an unrealistic or opportunist proposal but rather, interpreting our reality, we have worked hard to make this PROJECT highly effective and able to address the solution of our most immediate problems, dealing before anything else with the imperative need to carry out the universally desired Latin American Alliance in opposition to which one finds only lamentably sceptical theories with little influence in the internal and external policies of our States.
Affirming this reality, we propose an ALLIANCE and not a CONFEDERATION of the twenty one States of our America. We understand that to achieve this great objective, the first thing is to lay the foundation of the elementary Base which the ALLIANCE will present. But this is not the culmination of our aspirations. It constitutes only the first firm step of other future efforts by our NATION.
Perhaps people of advanced universal ideas will think that our concerns will encounter frontiers in the limited geographic extent between the Rio Bravo in the North and the Magellan Straits in the South of our America. But they might well meditate on the vital necessity for our Latin America to make this ALLIANCE, prior to a CONFEDERATION of the twenty one States that compose it, in this way guaranteeing our freedom and our Sovereignty, now threatened by the most rapacious imperialism, so as to achieve at the earliest opportunity the great destiny of the Latin American Nation, now within reach as the promised land for women and men of all peoples and races.
Given in El Chipotón, Las Segovias, Nicaragua, Central America on the twentieth day of March nineteen twenty nine.
Motherland and Freedom
A.C. Sandino
Traducción del hermano Stephen Sefton, escritor y periodista irlandés, que vive y trabaja para el Pueblo de Nicaragua