For the honored press of the world in general:

The surprising news has reached our camp that General José María Moncada, current agent of the Wall Street bankers in Nicaragua, imposed by Yankee bayonets, has resorted to a most outrageous lie. He has altered the meaning of the note sent to him last January 1 by this Supreme Command of the Army of Liberation, which, as the world now knows, limited itself to informing General Moncada that only with him, without the involvement of Yankee intermediaries, were we prepared to make agreements, by virtue of the compact that he was to make with the Nicaraguan people in the presence of our army and Liberal party, to respect the fundamental principles to be proposed to him in conferences that would take place in San Rafael del Norte.

The fundamental principles referred to are absolutely unknown to anybody, because they remain in our General Headquarters and will continue to remain there as long as this supreme command does not make some other arrangement.

Thus General Moncada lied in a stupid and vicious way when he said that we proposed to him the division of Nicaragua into two parts: one governed by me and the other by him. There is no one who will believe this.

It is well known to the civilized world that I fervently with that not only Central America should be unified morally and materially for its defense against Yankee imperialism, but also continental and West Indian America, and so I could not possibly consider breaking up Nicaragua, and, though our position is known abroad, I think it is useful to make these statements, because in this way they will become known to the Nicaraguan people, who are kept in the dark by the mercenary press of Nicaragua about events in our own country.

Upon releasing that base, dirty, and cynical lie, to charm the people General Moncada declares that this is "and insane thing to do" and a "betrayal of the fatherland of our elders." The insanity and betrayal which he alludes are his, since I would be incapable of such a crime.

Nobody would resort to such measures except someone hoping to confuse the Nicaraguan people, to benefit of the masters who have granted him power in our country: the slave carrying out the instructions that those same masters have given him. This is the puppet the Nicaraguan people have as their president, and the lowness of his acts should make our fellow citizens understand how much more he may yet be capable of, this man who has recourse to measures unworthy of an honorable person, and much more so from one who calls himself president of the Republic.

As a reward to the people who helped him in other times, General Moncada has ordered the bombing and strafing of the peaceful inhabitants of our Segovian mountains in these first months of his administration. Anyone who would like to convince himself of the savagery of General Moncada and of his masters, the Yankee pirates, could at this moment approach the Honduran border through which caravans of Nicaraguan campesino families are passing, dragging their misery along with them, fleeing the bombings and strafings inflicted by pirate aviators with the same hatred as ever for the Nicaraguan people. Those who approach them may witness scenes of great sorrow in which elderly people, children and women, some of them sick, hungry and clad in rags, in the greatest state of depression before the inhumanity of the cruel underling Moncada and the buccaneers whom he serves. Hundreds of campesinos, unable to endure the fatigue of the road because of poor health, have died on the trails that lead from the Segovias to Honduras.

The Yankee pirates took a deep plunge when they intruded into the internal affairs of our nation, and today, having no decent way out, they make Moncada attribute ideas to me that I am far from imagining, in order to supply themselves with a pretext for staying in Nicaragua.

They see me as a little enemy and they never believed that in the land where there are some who lick their feet there are also some who could spit upon them and slap them in the face. We have buried many thousands of pirates in our mountains and there are many more for us to kill.

For the forces newly enlisted by Moncada I also have some new plans. I am prepared to tire them out, and when they have exhausted their resources and their physical powers, they will surely be demoralized as well, and the I will attack them with greater force than ever before. The war will continue for as long as invading forces tread upon our land.

I have said countless times that I will not rest as long as the buccaneers are in Nicaragua, and in respect to General Moncada, who resorts to the bloodiest lies to make an exhibit of me before the Nicaraguan people and the civilized world, I understand that he does this because as a pirate he fears me. And that fear is justified, because sooner or later he will fall into my hands so that I may bring him to justice.

General Headquarters El Chipotón, Nicaragua, C.A.

February 24,1929

Patria y Libertad.

A.C. SANDINO