Nicaragua has created a new National Ministry for Extraterrestrial Space Affairs, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which is attracting amusing reactions on social media in a nation that has struggled since anti-government protests three years ago.
The agency was approved by 76 lawmakers on Wednesday at the country’s congress, which is dominated by President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista Party. Fifteen opposition lawmakers abstained.
In a country that has difficulty providing food, fuel and COVID-19 vaccines to its population, it is unclear exactly what the ministry should do.
It will be under the control of the Nicaraguan Army, which has no space program. The law says that the ministry “will promote the development of space activities, with the aim of expanding the country’s capacities in the areas of education, industry, science and technology”.
Geologist Jaime Incer Barquero, president of the Academy of Geography and History of Nicaragua, told CNN: “Nicaragua has no scientific capacity or tradition, it does not have a serious (space) observatory. As a country, we are not scientifically capable of carrying out this type of research ”.
Social media users were quick to create memes for Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, dressed as astronauts, and the Nicaraguan police expropriating the moon, as Ortega did with some buildings in Nicaragua that belonged to media and groups civic groups he disagreed with.
Critics said the country has no money to spend on dreams of space exploration. It has not yet acquired a COVID-19 vaccine and is in a deep social and economic crisis since the government overturned the mass protests in 2018.
The space agency episode is not the first time that Ortega endorses a quixotic proposal. In 2014, he authorized a Chinese company to build a $ 50 billion channel in Nicaragua. The project has made little progress.
Human rights organizations, for their part, said on Thursday that they will demand a “strong resolution” on the human rights situation in Nicaragua at the opening session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on February 22.
“Human rights violations continue in Nicaragua and require a mission to visit the country and make recommendations to overcome this challenge and for the county to return to normal before the elections,” said Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, UN special investigator on human rights. peaceful meeting and association.
National elections are scheduled for November 7. Ortega must run for his fourth term as president. If he wins, it will be his third consecutive term since 2007.
In the past few months, the Ortega government has proposed, approved and implemented a series of laws that hinder the functioning of non-governmental organizations.