Nicaragua has created a new national ministry for extraterrestrial space affairs, The Moon and other celestial bodies, which has left critics in a country plagued with a steady erosion of human rights since a brutal repression of protests against the government three years ago.
The new space agency was approved Wednesday by 76 lawmakers in the country’s congress, which is dominated by President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista party. Fifteen opposition lawmakers liked their abstention.
In a country struggling to provide food, fuel and coronavirus vaccines to their people, it is not clear exactly what the ministry should do.
It will be under the control of the Nicaraguan army, which has no space program. According to the law, the ministry will “promote the development of space activities with the aim of increasing the country’s capabilities in the fields of education, industry, science and technology”.
Geologist Jaime Incer Barquero, president of the Academy of Geography and History in Nicaragua, told CNN: “Nicaragua has no scientific ability or tradition, does not have a serious (space) observatory. We are not scientifically capable of doing research in this country. ‘
Social media users have created memes of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, dressed as astronauts, and of the Nicaraguan police expropriating the moon, as Ortega did with some buildings in Nicaragua that are part of media and civic groups with which he did not agree.
Critics have said the country does not have the money to dream about space exploration, accusing Ortega of wanting to divert attention from its dismal human rights record and stumbling response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Nicaraguan government has consistently underestimated the impact of Covid-19 and has not yet received any coronavirus vaccines. The country has been in a deep social and economic crisis since the government ended the mass protests in 2018.
The space agency is not the first time Ortega has endorsed quixotic proposals. In 2013, he authorized a Chinese company to build a $ 50 billion canal across Nicaragua. The project has made little progress.
Meanwhile, human rights organizations said on Thursday that they would demand a ‘strong resolution’ on Nicaragua’s human rights situation during the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council on 22 February.
“Human rights abuses continue in Nicaragua, and they need a mission to visit the country and make recommendations to overcome these challenges, and to bring the country back to normal before the election,” said Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, the special investigator from the UN, said about the rights to peaceful assembly and association.
The national election is scheduled for November 7. Ortega is expected to run for a fourth term as president. If he wins, it will be his third consecutive term since 2007.
In recent months, the government of Ortega has proposed, adopted and implemented a number of laws that make it more difficult for non-governmental organizations to work.