Thousands demonstrated in February 2023 against the electoral reforms proposed by the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. | Image: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Keystone

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected President of Mexico in 2017, “many researchers voted for him”, says Manuel Elías-Gutiérrez, a Mexican expert in biodiversity, in an interview with eLife. “They put a lot of hope in him”. But these hopes have now given way to fear, because Mexico’s left-wing populist president has been successively curtailing research freedom in recent years.

López Obrador has cut budgets and even issued arrest warrants for academics critical of his government.

For example, as eLife writes, he has replaced the directors of several research institutes with people sympathetic to him. He has cut budgets and even issued arrest warrants for academics who have been critical of his government. At present, he is pushing through a new law to increase the reach of government: the ‘HCTI law’, which will regulate research funding and reduce the independence of public institutions involved in science. Many academics are campaigning against it because they fear it will only increase government control over their respective fields.

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