The seventh round of trade and cooperation talks between the European Union (EU) and Central America were postponed Wednesday after Nicaragua decided to officially withdraw from the talks on Tuesday morning.

“We want to make clear the suspension of one round is not the end of the negotiations,” said Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno on Wednesday afternoon. “Not one country has the power of veto in order to stop negotiations.”

The negotiations taking place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras this week first came to a halt on Monday, the first day of the round of talks, after the Nicaraguan delegation tried to present a regional cooperation fund proposal without the consensus of the five Central American countries participating at the negotiations.

The amount Nicaragua requested was €60 billion (about $79.4 billion), an amount not feasible for the EU, Stagno said.

On Tuesday morning, Nicaragua rejoined the negotiations but insisted on pressing on for the fund and abandoned the talks when the delegation could not achieve a regional consensus.

“The four (remaining) countries still want to continue the negotiations. We considered Nicaragua's decision to be a unilateral decision,” Stagno said. “This certainly could affect our interests.”

According to a press release from the EU and the four remaining Central American countries – Costa Rica, Nicaragua's decision is a “temporary measure.”

Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the foreign trade minister, spoke on Wednesday about the possibility of Panama joining the talks if Nicaragua chooses not to rejoin in the near future.

“Nicaragua's decision is unfortunate however we respect it,” Ruiz told reporters. “We urged Nicaragua to abandon this anti-Central American stance because it is a position that hurts the interests of Central America, not just Nicaragua.”

The talks could resume by early May, both Stagno and Ruiz said.

The president's cabinet named a new head of Costa Rica's emergency commission on Wednesday, one day after agents raided the commission's offices in the western San José district of Pavas.

Vanessa Rosales, 47, a civil engineer who worked for the National Emergency Commission (CNE) between 2005 and 2006 as an executive director, will assume full responsibility of the office on April 13.

She enters at a turbulent time for the commission, which is under investigation for awarding sizeable contracts to individuals privately associated with the former commission president, Daniel Gallardo.

On Tuesday, agents from the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor's office initiated an investigation, closing off a section of the CNE headquarters, and searching for documents at a handful of private firms.

After he was questioned in March about his association with the companies that received the contracts, Gallardo announced his resignation, citing personal and health reasons.

But Gallardo's associations aren't the only conflict facing the CNE at the moment. Rosales is also stepping into a shower of criticism over the government's response to the earthquake in January that leveled 500 homes.

See the April 3 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

MANAGUA – At least three houses were destroyed and 10 others extensively damaged in the four earthquakes that hit San Juan del Río Coco and other towns in Nicaragua's northern Madriz province, but no one was injured, emergency management officials said.

All the dwellings destroyed and damaged by the series of earthquakes on Tuesday were located in San Juan del Río Coco, Lt. Col. Oscar Hernández, the emergency management office operations chief, told newswire EFE.

Three teams of emergency workers have been deployed to San Juan de Limay, San Fernando, Condega, Quilali and Jalapa, all towns located near San Juan del Río Coco, Hernández said.

The army is providing air transportation for the teams that will evaluate the damage and assist residents, the official said.

The four earthquakes hit between 11:45 a.m. and 11:50 a.m. on Tuesday, with the most powerful a magnitude-5 quake that occurred at a depth of 78 kilometers (48 miles), Hernandez Peralta said.

The temblors were caused by a geological fault in the San Lucas Valley, Hernández said.

The earthquakes occurred 154 kilometers (95 miles) north of Managua, where residents marked the 78th anniversary Tuesday of the March 31, 1931, temblor that destroyed the capital.

The Costa Rica Seed Company and the United Biofuels of America are hosting this week the first Jatropha Harvest Experience Costa Rica 2009, an event to raise awareness about a tree expected to become a major player in the future of biofuel.

Professors and researchers from the United States have been invited to speak at the three day event, which started Wednesday and runs through Friday, at the Marriot Los Sueños in Playa Herradura.

The Jatropha curcas is a native Central American that produces inedible nuts whose seeds can contain up to 40 percent oil. When crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in standard diesel engines.

According to the Costa Rica Seed Company, which harvests the crop on an 80 hectare (200 acre) farm in Tarcoles, Costa Rica, the Jatropha is a resilient crop that can stand up against droughts and pests. The company believes it to be a good supplement to other forms of biodiesel products because it can grow in places where sugar cane cannot.

Participants at this year's session received training in planting and pruning and demonstrations in the oil extraction and refining process.