Researchers Gabriela Dutrénit Bielous, Enrique Cabrero Mendoza and Julia Tagüeña Parga.UAM-MIT-CUARTOSCURO
The Mexican scientific sector is in the target of the Government of López Obrador. The Attorney General's Office has requested, for the second time, the arrest of 31 scientists and researchers accused by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), the governing body of science in the country, for operations with resources of illicit origin, organized crime and embezzlement. Faced with these accusations, various academic institutions and research centers have asked the Executive to stop the harassment of the scientific community. The authorities have their sights set on the budget of 244 million pesos that the Consultative, Scientific and Technological Forum (FCCyT) association received during Enrique Peña Nieto's administration. The crime of organized crime is an accusation that merits informal preventive detention for which the accused,in case of being arrested, they would not be able to free their proceedings.
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Among those mentioned are Enrique Cabrero Mendoza, general director of Conacyt between 2013 and 2018, Julia Tagüeña Parga, director of the Forum between 2018 and 2020;
Gabriela Dutrénit Bielous, professor at the UAM Xochimilco;
o Luis Mier and Terán Casanueva, former rector general of the UAM.
In a first attempt, on August 25, the Prosecutor's Office requested the arrest of this group of investigators, however, a federal judge of the Altiplano prison, in the State of Mexico, refused to grant the arrest warrants due to various inconsistencies in the accusations, for example, that it was necessary to specify the participation of the accused in the crimes. Despite the rejection, the Prosecutor's Office has again presented the arrest warrants, insisting that those involved participated in an illegal resource allocation scheme for work already carried out by Conacyt.
The researcher at the Center for Genomic Sciences, David Romero, described the arrest requests of the Prosecutor's Office as judicial abuse and an attempt to intimidate different opinions within the scientific community.
“What we see is that this is an attempt to silence critical voices to the Conacyt administration.
There is no valid element to justify such extreme accusations ”, he commented.
Romero added that the prosecution's accusations represent more an attempt to retaliate against investigators who in the past have had conflicts with the federal government's narrative, for example, against the former director of the Consultative Forum, Tagüeña, who a year ago faced with the Conacyt in court.
The disagreements between Conacyt and the Forum date from the end of 2019, when the highest federal body of science in Mexico questioned the budget granted to this civil association and decided to stop delivering it. The Forum, at that time directed by Julia Tagüeña, presented and won the protection to continue receiving the federal budget, however, a year later the Conacyt decided to change its internal statutes to free itself from the obligation to provide resources to this body.
Referring to the investigations against the investigators, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared this morning that his Administration will not allow impunity. “It is presumed that there were mismanagements of resources in Conacyt. But this will be resolved by the judge and he who owes nothing, fears nothing. It is that we have to fight corruption, of course higher, from top to bottom, "said the president in his usual press conference.
After announcing the prosecution's crusade against this group of researchers, academics from the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) and the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) demanded the cessation of the threats against those named.
"These accusations against 31 members of the national academic community, among which is our colleague and former director, Dr. Enrique Cabrero Mendoza, are simply unacceptable, for which we demand the withdrawal of the authorities from this disproportionate and absurd claim," he said. the CIDE in writing.
More restrictions on scientific programs
The López Obrador government has also tightened the siege on the programs operated by Conacyt.
More than 1,200 researchers assigned to the Conacyt Chair program were notified of changes in the evaluation criteria, modifications, which, judging by the researchers, seek the dismantling of the program that has been operating since 2014.
The beneficiaries are at risk of losing the monthly benefit they receive from Conacyt, which amounts to an average of 30,000 pesos due to the tightening of the evaluation criteria.
As of this year, the federal body has established that in order to continue receiving this resource "the academic staff will have the obligation to seek their employment in the Receiving Institution in which they are commissioned or in any other," according to the agency. to the beneficiaries.
A biologist holds a blood sample in a hospital in the State of Mexico.
Barcroft Media / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Sarai Miranda, a professor in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas and one of those affected by these changes, warned that they fear that this new clause is the preamble to the disappearance of an initiative that, paradoxically, arose as an attempt to create an alternative employment for young researchers who could not find teaching positions in the country's universities and research centers.
The researchers who are under the protection of the initiative, work in an academic institution called "recipient", although in reality their employer is Conacyt.
"The disappearance of the program would prevent new generations from joining the job market, there are many doctors in this country who are teaching classes by subject and are not doing research and who do not have a fixed position.
There are many unemployed people, it is a very unfortunate panorama ”, settled Miranda.
In her case, she joined Conacyt Chairs five years ago with a research project on gender violence in the southeast of the country that is still ongoing.
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