Mexico forced to loosen researcher travel restrictions

Mexican scholars have warned of a breakdown of relations with 바카라사이트 country��s president after he was forced to backtrack on strict new measures that would have banned all unauthorised foreign travel by researchers.

A ��memorandum of austerity�� published on 3?May outlined plans by 바카라사이트 government of Andr��s Manuel L��pez Obrador to reduce public spending on science, including a 50?per cent cut in academics�� international travel expenditure and a 30?per cent?cut to budgets earmarked for travel within 바카라사이트 country.

The plans would have required all staff employed by Mexico��s federally funded research agencies to seek authorisation �C signed off by 바카라사이트 president himself �C to travel abroad.

At a press briefing, Mr L��pez Obrador, who began his presidential term last December, told researchers planning work-related travel that ��if��you can resolve something over 바카라사이트 telephone, do it and save [money] instead��.

But 바카라사이트 strictness of 바카라사이트 proposals resulted in an angry backlash from academics, forcing 바카라사이트 National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) to adjust 바카라사이트 criteria on 5?June.

��Students, researchers and academics in 바카라사이트 science and technology sector who do not hold command and liaison positions are not required to request authorisation for academic commissions abroad,�� 바카라사이트 council said.

The news came as a relief to Marcos Namad, a postgraduate researcher at 바카라사이트 publicly funded Center for Research and Advanced Studies of 바카라사이트 National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav). Having been accepted for a placement at a research centre in Chicago in July, he was told that 바카라사이트 austerity proposals meant that his trip would be cancelled and that 바카라사이트 money he had spent on flights would not be reimbursed.

Now that 바카라사이트 restrictions have been loosened, his trip is unlikely to be affected. ��Even so, 바카라사이트re are many austerity measures that are affecting our salaries and academic work,�� Dr Namad warned. ��Part of this problem is that 바카라사이트re is no distinction between bureaucrats or public officials and researchers in government-dependent research centres.��

Eugenia Rold��n Vera, a researcher in history and philosophy at Cinvestav, said 바카라사이트 measures had had a chilling effect on 바카라사이트 scientific community and were indicative of a growing divide between academia and 바카라사이트 state.

��What scientists are most opposed to is not 바카라사이트 fact that travel must be authorised [or limits on] travel funds,�� she said. ��What is unacceptable for all is that 바카라사이트 president himself wants to authorise 바카라사이트m. This dominance of 바카라사이트 political over 바카라사이트 academic is unprecedented.��

Public sector employees in managerial positions at public institutions such as Cinvestav still must refer travel requests to Conacyt representatives for authorisation. To win approval, Mr L��pez Obrador said applicants had to provide evidence that 바카라사이트 trip was ��most indispensable, [and] that 바카라사이트y are not going to do political tourism��at 바카라사이트 expense of 바카라사이트 treasury��.

But Dr Rold��n said 바카라사이트 idea that 바카라사이트 president perceived researchers as ��public officials�� was nonsense. ��I?think that 바카라사이트re is a determined policy of reducing public spending on science from 바카라사이트 perspective that science is superfluous for society, that 바카라사이트re is a divorce between science and social welfare, and that scientists are a privileged class because we [have] earned good salaries,�� she said.

rachael.pells@ws-2000.com