Opening of the fourth Course on disarmament and non-proliferation. Managua, Nicaragua, 2019.
The Secretariat of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, together with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Nicaragua, conducted the fourth Course on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the city of Managua from 24 to 27 September 2019.
The course was attended by 30 people from the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, members of the Army, the National Police, as well as firefighters, students of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, staff of the National System of Disaster Prevention and Canal 4 journalists.
Minister of Defense, Rosa Adelina Barahona Castro, gives a recognition award to Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, course instructor.
During the opening of the course, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denis Moncada Colindres and the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Legal Affairs, Iván Lara, were present, as well as the Minister of Defense, Rosa Adelina Barahona Castro, and Vice-Minister of Defense, Oscar Rafael Guevara Ocón.
The course was held in the form of master classes directed by Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and current president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, who over four days transmitted to the participants his diplomatic, negotiating and international-system-working experiences, making historical reviews on the origins of the nuclear weapon, the negotiations carried out to achieve the signing of treaties related to the matter of non-proliferation and total elimination of nuclear weapons, as well as the importance of the disastrous consequences that a population affected by a nuclear bomb would have.
The OPANAL course on disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is one of the Agency's initiatives to continue working on the implementation of education programs for disarmament and non-proliferation, addressing the danger posed by nuclear weapons and joining the fight for its elimination.