The creation of the "Office for Outer Space Affairs" causes controversy in Nicaragua | CNN

Daniel Ortega proposes Nicaraguan space agency 0:49

(CNN) -

The initiative of the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, to create a National Secretariat for Outer Space, Moon and other Celestial Bodies, sparked debate and generated some criticism in the country.

Jorge Huete, a molecular biologist and member of the Board of Directors of the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences, told CNN that “these actions are mocked for being untimely.

They expose the central problem of officials who have completely lost the compass about the real problems and priorities of this nation.

According to Huete, "this type of decision on extraterrestrial affairs seems more like fiction, far from priorities and in bad taste, as is the idea of ​​the interoceanic canal or the space satellite", says the director of the Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua.

The private secretary for national policies of the Ortega government, Paul Oquist, sent the initiative to create the Space Agency to the president of the National Assembly, Gustavo Porras, on Thursday.

• Daniel Ortega promotes the creation of a Space Agency for Nicaragua

According to the document, the bill is based on the fulfillment of the commitments that the country acquired with the so-called “Treaty on the principles that should govern the activities of States in the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other heavenly bodies ”, which entered into force on October 10, 1967 and was ratified by 110 countries, including Nicaragua in 2017.

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Asked by CNN, political analyst Bosco Matamoros stated that the eventual establishment of an office for Outer Space Affairs in Nicaragua sounds like an "eccentricity", since the country does not have the technological or military conditions for the establishment of an office of that nature. .

According to the government project, the Secretariat for Outer Space Affairs would be a decentralized entity attached to the Presidency, with technical and administrative autonomy, with its own assets and coordinated by a secretary appointed by the president.

The entity, according to the bill, will have functions such as "promoting the effective development of space activities to expand the country's capacities in the educational, industrial, scientific and technological branches in this matter."

On these functions attributed to the future entity, Huete added that it is more important "to address the lack of a basic education without partisanship and truly scientific."

In this sense, he assured that the Academy of Sciences “has been promoting the promotion of appropriate technologies and areas of knowledge that could contribute to this development, including nanotechnology and biotechnology to strengthen agricultural productivity, medical sciences and geophysical sciences. and environmental issues to address the growing vulnerability to natural phenomena ”.

Nicaragua space agency