Elena Alvarez Buella, the new president of the Socialist Equality Party

Two months into his leadership of Conacyt, a Change.org petition, signed by recognized experts, called for Alvarez Boella’s dismissal for “mismanagement” and “nepotism”. This, after Morena’s Senator introduced the Humanities, Science and Technology Act initiative and proposed new powers for the Conacyt, such as the power to overturn any public or private investigation without mediating with advisory bodies. In the end, Álvarez Boella had to promise that he would respect academic freedom at Kunasset.

Under his guidance, academics and students have protested against Conacyt for several reasons: reducing the number of postgraduate scholarships awarded, eliminating resources for the Forum for Scientific and Technological Consulting (FCCyT) and excluding recognized researchers from the national system of researchers such as Antonio Lazcano. While Beatriz Gutierrez, the writer and wife of Lopez Obrador, and Jertes Manero, the attorney general of the Republic, were accepted into the same body.

resistance to appear

Alvarez Boella will be appointed after opposition lawmakers last Thursday questioned his 10-month resistance to meeting with Congress and dismantling the country’s pro-flag politics.

In 2021, Sergio López Ayalon resigned from the management of the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) and José Antonio Romero Telici was appointed interim director, and days later two academics were dismissed from this house of studies due to “acts of rebellion”.

The CIDE community accused Romero Talish of bullying and harassment in the workplace, and demanded his dismissal. The students protested, marched, seizing CIDE facilities and even strengthening legal protections, but this did not prevent them from certifying Romero Tellaeche in office.

The Science and Technology Committee From the Senate he called Álvarez-Buylla to appear before lawmakers for this problem, in criminal complaints against scientists, and mechanical ventilators that Conacyt has promised since 2020 to deal with the epidemic of covid-19.19, but they were not ready, just like a vaccine against this so-called virus Patria, which was announced as a Mexican development and has yet to come to fruition.

However, the academic did not attend the hearing. Despite arrest warrants, Alvarez Bella reappeared 10 months later.

Just last week, he held a conference meeting with the scientific committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, a framework in which he advocated the disappearance of funds related to Kunsett, since, in his opinion, they are unused resources and should have another fate. .

He acknowledged that 25.741 million pesos had been returned to the Federal Treasury (Tesofe) to reinvest in “real needs” and meet spending priorities, i.e. priority projects, such as the mega projects of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government.

Though questioned by the opposition, the official defended her passage through Conacyt, predicting that she would leave a “dignified and clear legacy, backed by accurate data” against “neoliberal science” and “technology”.

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With information from Karina Garcia…