 United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Thank you very much. I don't think I can say anything that's going to top that. Well, welcome all of you to the White House. And I want to express my deepest appreciation to you, the concerned citizens for democracy, to Carlos Perez who helped you organize your spirit of freedom flight and to the Jefferson Educational Foundation, your hosts here in Washington. We welcome you as neighbors and we welcome you as fellow Americans. You represent the countries of Columbia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela. And you have come to Washington at your own expense to share with us and our Congress the most compelling truth of our time, the dream of a bright future for democracy, economic progress and stability in this hemisphere. And it's all within our grasp. But that dream can quickly become a nightmare if we don't stand behind the brave men who are putting their lives on the line for the cause of freedom in Nicaragua. We, the people of the America, share a common language. It's the language of freedom. Words like, democracia, hustesia, I didn't do that right, but, and liberty were handed down to us by the heroes that we share and honor together, Simone Bolivar and George Washington. And they gave us values that we cherish and strive to live by today. Faith in a God of truth, love and mercy. Belief in the family is the center of our society. Recognition of the unalienable rights of man. And a conviction that government must derive its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. And so it is that the United States has a noble commitment to Central America. We're committed by geography, by treaty, and by moral obligation to stand with you, our American neighbors, in defense of liberty. But the Soviet Union has its own plan for Central America, a region which Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko described as boiling like a cauldron. In the last five years, the Soviets have provided more military assistance to Cuba and Nicaragua alone than the United States has provided to all of Latin America. The Soviets' plan is designed to crush self-determination of free people, to crush democracy in Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. It's a plan to turn Central America into a Soviet beachhead of aggression that could spread terror and instability north and south, disrupt our vital sea lanes, cripple our ability to carry out our commitments to our European allies, and send tens of millions of refugees streaming in a human tidal wave across all our borders. Already, the Nicaraguan people are fleeing the Sandinista tyranny, escaping into your neighboring countries. In just the last few weeks, thousands of Nicaraguans have fled to Costa Rica. They tell of rising resistance to the Sandinista dictatorship, a dictatorship that speaks reassuring words of peace to the outside world, even as it has moved to crush personal freedoms, attack the church, nearly wipe out an entire culture, the Mosquito Indians, summarily execute suspected dissidents, drive leading Democrats into exile, and force young boys to defend the revolution, while Soviet block advisers sit in Managua living off the people. Just last week, the Sandinista started the forced movement of tens of thousands of people from Hinotega and Mora to in order to create free fire zones, and they're using Stalin's tactic of Gulag relocation for those who do not support their tyrannical regime. How many times have we seen this pattern of forced relocation repeated in the Ukraine, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, Cuba, and elsewhere? And yet, because we're such a trusting people, anxious to believe others and believe that they share our hopes and our dreams, some still find it hard to look reality in the eye or to rouse themselves, even when our most vital interests are threatened. The United States was on the side of democracy during the fight against Samosa, and we're on the side of democracy today. When the Sandinistas came to power, promising democracy, we gave them more aid than any other developed country, $119 million from 1979 to 1981, plus support for $244 million more from the Inter-American Development Bank. How did they respond to America's outstretched hand of friendship, trust, and generosity? Well, the Sandinistas became, as they had always planned, eager puppets for the Soviets and the Cubans. They created their own Karl Marx postage stamps. They sang an anthem that called the United States the Enemy of All Mankind. They brought in East Germans to organize their state security. They became a rubber stamp for the Communist bloc in the UN, voting against the democracies on virtually every crucial issue, from refusing to condemn Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia to not accepting Israel's credentials. While the United States was offering friendship and providing unprecedented sums of aid, the Sandinistas were building up an army that dwarfed and bullied their neighbors. While Americans were debating the Sandinistas' true intentions, Thomas Bohé, the Sandinista minister of the Interior, who received his training from the Soviets, Cubans, and PLO, was saying, you cannot be a true revolutionary in Latin America without being Marxist-Leninist. While we were bending over backward to be friendly and helpful, the Sandinistas were already conspiring to bring Communist revolution to all of Central America. As far back as 1969, they pledged to, quote, struggle for a true union of the Central American peoples within one country, beginning with support for national liberation movements in neighboring states, unquote. Once in power in Nicaragua, they began working for their revolution without frontiers, in which small democratic unarmed Costa Rica would be, and I quote, their words, the dessert. Well, today the PLO was honored with an embassy in Managua, and in addition to their close ties with the Soviets, Cubans, and East Germans, the Sandinistas received support from Bulgaria, Vietnam, and North Korea. The radical states of Iran and Libya also have established military ties with the Sandinistas in a new Nicaragua, which also harbors members of the Red Brigades, the ETA, and other terrorist organizations. And all this is taking place only a few hundred miles from our shores. The Sandinistas are masking these deeds between well-rehearsed rhetoric of disinformation intended to lull the world in the weeks ahead. But you know their true intentions. You know what happened when a broad coalition of exiled Nicaraguan Democrats recently met in San Jose and offered to lay down their weapons if only the Sandinistas would accept democracy and free elections. The Sandinistas not only refused, but their state security rounded up the editor of La Prensa, the president of the private enterprise council and other leading Democrats in Managua, and threatened, if you meet with the members of the San Jose group, then, quote, you will suffer the consequences, unquote. Well, hasn't the time come for all freedom-loving people to unite in demanding an end to the Sandinistas' intimidation? And you know, let us look. Nicaraguan freedom fighters don't ask us to send troops. Indeed, none are needed, for the Nicaraguan people are coming over their side in ever greater numbers. The freedom fighters have grown to a force more than two times bigger than the Sandinistas were before they seized power. Their freedom fighters are people of the land. They're the true revolutionaries. They are the hope for a future of democracy. And with our help, democracy can and will be restored. There are two among you here today, Sr. Alberto Sir and Sr. Carlos Garcia, who have personally suffered the full range of Sandinista insults, persecution, and imprisonment. Alberto Sir was jailed for helping to identify missing persons the Sandinistas had hidden in prisons. Carlos Garcia, a leading figure in the international world of baseball, was imprisoned for 1,640 days on totally trumped-up charges. Their story, just like your journey, is a profile in courage. We can only be thankful for all of you who care enough to speak the truth. And we can only pray that all who hold the fate of freedom in their hands will heed your words before it is too late. Let it never be said that we were not told, that we were not warned, that we did not know. Thank you all for being here. God bless you all. Mr. President, I think this is one of the most important thrills. Thank you. This is the most important thrill of our life. You are the truly champion of democracy. Mr. President, Central America need you. The Karahua need you. The freedom fighters need you. Allow me to read this letter signed by all these gentlemen from different countries of Latin America. President of the United States of America, the White House. Dear Mr. President, we, the undersigned citizen of Latin American countries and friend of the United States of America, support you, sir, in your magnificent effort on behalf of the heroic freedom fighters of Nicaragua. If the freedom fighters succeed, we in Latin American will have a democratic future with free enterprise instead of the nightmare of the Soviet-style totalitarianism communism. God bless you, sir. God bless you, wife. We, Latin American, depend on you to help us oppose the spread of the Soviet and Cuban totalitarianism in our beloved hemisphere. Effective use signed by all the companions. Also, I would like to present you on behalf of all of us, this record, American mortal. I know American is immortal and will be immortal. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. God bless you. We also want to thank you for your kind words for us and for the Nicaraguan people. When I say Nicaraguan people, I don't mean only of us who are here, but I mean all those who are still suffering. I'm talking about the Shushain boy, the bricklayer, the carpenter, the peasant, and about all the 50,000 political prisoners that are still in Nicaragua. Concerned citizens for democracy have asked me to give you this statement here, and I'd like to read it. It says, Concerned citizens for democracy incorporated wishes to express its deepest admiration to the President of the United States, the Honorable Ronald Wilson Reagan, for his dedicated support for the principle of democracy worldwide, but especially in our hemisphere. It is a great pleasure. We along with all the representatives of Latin American countries who comprise our delegation present you with this song of hope and inspiration, America and mortal, which is the record you have. And this program was signed by all of us here present. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all. I'm greatly, I'm greatly honored and I appreciate this more than I can say. And your words there, I'm just going to take a second and tell you a little experience a few years ago when I made my trip down into your countries in Costa Rica and I was invited to speak and I think mainly the audience was made up of the legislature there. And before I could start to speak, a gentleman rose and started making a speech at me. And I wasn't familiar enough with the language to know just what was going on and I, your statement about peasants and the poor and the people who really are on the side of freedom when we hear so much from some others that they represent those people. I stepped back and asked the president and he told me that this man was a member of the legislature. He was a communist member of the legislature and that he was making a communist speech. Well, in the pride and democracy that so characterizes Costa Ricans, they resisted any effort to by force keep him from speaking. But I also thought it was interesting that the president told me he was the only member of their legislature that drove a Mercedes.