Within the framework of Space Day 2024, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the people’s government of Hubei Province held the first edition of the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Space Cooperation Forum. At this event, the Asian and Nicaraguan astronomical organizations signed a cooperation agreement that will cover areas of education and development, strengthening ties with the Asian nation that has been in existence for less than three years; after Daniel Ortega abruptly cut his ties with Taiwan, one of his largest financiers.
At the opening ceremony, the National Secretariat for Outer Space Affairs, the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies of Nicaragua (SNAE) and the CNSA jointly signed the resolution, which will be far-reaching and will have an impact on joint research, professional exchanges and the development of space architecture.
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During the event, Zhang Guoqing, the vice prime minister of the communist Council of State of China, read a letter sent by the dictator Xi Jinping, one of the allies of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The Asian leader has “high expectations for the construction of a High Level Space Cooperation Association between China and Latin America and the Caribbean and affirmed that his country is “willing to work” with the nations of the region to strengthen the “synergy of the development strategies in the field of space, deepen cooperation in scientific and technological innovation and promote industrial complementarity and mutual improvement.
While the director of the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), Zhang Kejianhighlighted that space cooperation between communist China and LATAM offers “a wide range of opportunities, including telecommunications, digital satellite mapping, commercial navigation, the fight against climate change and disaster risk reduction.”
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The Nicaraguan delegation that participated in the Space Cooperation forum is made up of General Efrén Marín, head of the Air Force of the Nicaraguan Army and Coordinator of the SNAE and colonel Noel Morales, legal advisor to the Nicaraguan Army.
The teacher completes the list Humberto Garciadirector of the Astrophysics and Space Sciences Research Center of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) and the Michael Campbell, Nicaraguan ambassador to China.
The event was also attended by more than a thousand representatives of space administrations, diplomatic missions, universities, companies, academic institutions and organizations specialized in space matters.
Other space projects with China
In March of this year, Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of Nicaraguan dictators and appointed by his father as presidential advisor for investments, met with a delegation from the International Cooperation Center of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), with which Nicaragua signed a memorandum of understanding to include the country in the Chinese project to travel to the moon.
According to the information released by the regime’s propaganda media, the agreement signed with China’s DSEL allows Nicaragua to participate in the development of the “International Lunar Research Station.”
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The memorandum, which came into effect immediately after its signing and will be valid for five years, states that the signatory parties will cooperate in the development of the International Lunar Research Station, “to help build a community with a shared future for humanity.” in the field of outer space. China plans to begin construction of its lunar station by the beginning of 2030.
Laureano Ortega once promised Nicaragua a Chinese satellite, NicaSat1, which would cost $300 million and become operational in 2016. It would supposedly make Nicaragua an independent country in telecommunications. Of the satellite project, only the numerous photos of Ortega Murillo in meetings and a scale model that he brought to the country from one of his trips to China, paid for with state funds, were known. Nothing more was ever heard from the satellite.
