35. In Central America, the initiative to establish the first astronomical observatory had begun in Honduras in the beginning of the 1990s, following a recommendation made at the United Nations/ESA Workshop on Basic Space Science held in Colombia and Costa Rica in 1992 (A/AC.105/530). The initiative had been based on a strategy of a continuous regional cooperation among national universities in Central America and strong cooperation with astronomers and prestigious astronomical research centres at the international level. Since 1994, a provisional astronomical observatory had been operating at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras at Tegucigalpa. That academic unit, equipped with a 42-cm computerized telescope and supporting equipment, had been used to start a programme for training researchers and technicians in Central America. A number of agreements for cooperation with regional and international institutions were being prepared in order to further develop basic space science in Central America. The Workshop had inaugurated the Central American Astronomical Observatory at Tegucigalpa with the dedication of the Telescopio Rene Sagastume Castillo at the Suyapa Observatory for Central America.