• English
  • العربية
  • 中文
  • Français
  • Русский
  • Español
  1. Press centre
  2. Employment
  3. Contact

You are here

DDG-TC's Official Visit to Guatemala

27 March 2017
Mr Dazhu Yang, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, visited Guatemala from 22 to 24 February 2017. Photo © Cristian Monterroso – visitguatemala.com During the visit to Guatemala, Mr Yang and Mr Raul Ramirez, Section Head-TCLAC, visited Ms. Rebeca Arias, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System, and met representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). At this meeting, the role of the UN agencies and programmes in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was discussed, taking into account Guatemala’s development needs and opportunities for enhancing future collaboration. On February 23, Mr Yang visited the El Pino Mass Rearing Facility for the production of sterile Mediterranean fruit flies. The facility is operated by the MOSCAMED Program as part of efforts to control the spread of the insect pest in the region. Mr Edwin Ramirez, Director of the El Pino Facility, demonstrated aspects of the Facility’s work. The MOSCAMED Program is funded by the governments of the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala, and protects large areas of the countries involved, including neighbouring Belize, allowing them to produce and export fruits and vegetables to local and international markets without quarantine restrictions. Collaboration between the IAEA’s Laboratories at Seibersdorf and the MOSCAMED Program has supported the transfer of technology for Genetic Sexing Strains. This uses thermal treatments of eggs to ensure that only male fruit flies are produced for sterilization and release. The El Pino Mass Rearing Facility is the largest of its kind worldwide. It carries out industrial processes based on technology generated at the IAEA, and collaborates with countries in the region, transferring technology and sterile insects for insect eradication campaigns. Mr Yang and Mr Ramirez also visited the irradiation section of the El Pino rearing facility, to observe one of the applications of nuclear technology: the sterilization of insects for use in the environmentally friendly Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). The aim of the SIT is to mass produce, sterilize, and release insects which then compete in the wild against their own kind. This ‘birth control for insects’ results in sterile mating and no reproduction, and helps avoid the use of pesticides. A new section of El Pino, for the emergence, feeding, preconditioning and release of sterile insects, has recently been inaugurated. Here, insects are housed in screen trays and fed within emergence towers prior to their release in the wild. Mr Yang and Mr Ramirez visited the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and were briefed on the progress of regulatory activities in the country. From left to right: Ms Lucia Estrada, Director General of Energy; Mr Dazhu Yang; Mr Roberto Velásquez, Viceminister of Sustainable Development; Ms Mayra Villatoro, Chief of the Laboratories and National Liaison Officer; and Mr Raul Ramirez. Mr Yang Dazhu also met with Mr Adrian Chávez, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance of Guatemala, to share information on how the IAEA TC Programme contributes to the improvement of public health by, for example, helping Member States in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (including Guatemala) to address the outbreak of the Zika virus. At the National Cancer Institute, Hospital Dr Bernardo del Valle S. (INCAN), where cancer patients receive radiotherapy treatment, Dr Lily Ureta, Head of the Department of Radiotherapy, showed Mr Yang equipment donated by the IAEA. The IAEA, through the TC programme, has helped enhance human resources and infrastructure at the Department. Mr Yang had the opportunity to meet several of the staff of the National Cancer Institute during his visit. Special thanks to: Ministerio de Energia y Minas (MEM), MOSCAMED Program Photos from the field provided by: Guillermo Iriarte (Moscamed Program), Hector Morales (UNDP Office) Captions & Arrangement: Crosby Plaza and Pedro Rendon, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation © 2017 IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation

Mr Dazhu Yang, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, visited Guatemala from 22 to 24 February 2017.

More

Last update: 15 February 2018

More on the IAEA

  1. Contact
  2. Privacy Policy
  3. Logo Usage Guidelines

Scientific resources

  1. NUCLEUS
  2. International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
  3. Power Reactor Information System (PRIS)
  4. Nuclear Data Services (NDS)

Resources

  1. Employment
  2. Gender at the IAEA
  3. Press

Documents

  1. Information Circulars
  2. Treaties
  3. Standards and guides
  4. Safeguards and Additional Protocol

Stay in touch

Newsletter