Politics: Charges against scientists raise doubts over policy and the country’s top prosecutor
Many critics have observed that President López Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” approach has translated into a largely hands-off approach to the country’s drug cartels and other organized crime outfits. But it seems that AMLO and other members of his administration, including his Attorney General, have set their sights on what they appear to see as a much more dangerous scourge: a group of 31 scientists, academics and researchers.
The person he appointed as head of the National Council on Science and Technology (Conacyt), with a history of accusing the body she presides over of practicing “neoliberal science", took aim at an adjunct body, the Consultative Forum (FCCyT). After attempts to starve it of funding were frustrated by the courts, the Conacyt head repeatedly accused the Forum and the related National System of Researchers (SIM) of having engaged in embezzlement, misuse of authority and power, and operations involving proceeds derived from illicit sources. The role being played by Attorney General Gertz Manero, who has a history of personal conflicts with the SIM that might have been the basis for a recusal, raises other major issues regarding the discretionary use of the justice system for political purposes: he is actively pursuing the case of such “misdeeds” as having used part of their budget on “domestic and international trips to attend congresses, salaries [that the administration claims were exorbitant] and job benefits such as gasoline, medical insurance and meals.”
The case raises questions about the accountability of the Office of the Attorney General and of its top officer, and the extent to which the justice system continues to be used as an instrument of political control and intimidation.
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