Daniel Ortega promotes the Space Agency for Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega.

Credit: INTI OCON / AFP via Getty Images

(CNN Spanish) -

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has presented a bill for the creation of a "National Secretariat for Outer Space Affairs, the Moon and other Celestial Bodies."

Through Paul Oquist Kelley, Ortega's private secretary for national policies, President Ortega sent a formal petition to the president of the Nicaraguan National Assembly, Gustavo Porras, dated January 28.

The text indicates that national defense and the search for scientific opportunities are the reasons for the creation of the Secretariat.

"This initiative of the Law is aimed at the creation of a National Secretariat for Outer Space Affairs, the Moon and other Celestial Bodies, which allows the Nicaraguan State to address this issue with the necessary technical and scientific rigor, with a vision of defense of interests supreme nationals and the search for opportunities that, as a country, we must aspire to in this area, in accordance with the norms of international law ”, says the document.

The text also suggests political reasons, stating that "outer space is a patrimony of humanity and, therefore, cannot be the object of appropriation by any nation."

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According to the World Bank, Nicaragua is one of the least developed countries in Latin America.

"Due to the social and political turmoil that the country has experienced since April 2018, the economy contracted -4.0 and -3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, respectively," the bank says in its most recent assessment of the Central American country.

"According to the latest forecasts, 2020 growth is expected to fall to -5.9 percent and slowly recover to 1.1 percent by 2021," adds the World Bank.

The government of Daniel Ortega has been in favor of carrying out large-scale projects through an association with businessmen from China, such as a canal similar to that of Panama in its territory.

However, so far none have been finalized.

Daniel Ortega