A lack of funding and academic freedom amid a political crackdown leave scientists feeling hopeless and pondering an exodus from the country

‘Afraid to talk’: researchers fear the end for science in Venezuela

A lack of funding and academic freedom amid a political crackdown leave scientists feeling hopeless and pondering an exodus from the country

As President Nicolás Maduro continues a crackdown on his political opposition, researchers in Venezuela are increasingly considering leaving the country. His government has detained more than 1,600 people, including students and professors, since the National Electoral Council declared him the winner of July’s contested presidential election, according to Foro Penal, a human-rights organization based in Caracas. Edmundo González, who ran against Maduro in the election, fled for Spain on 8 September to avoid being arrested.

Scientists, some of whom spoke to Nature on the condition of anonymity because they fear retribution from the government, say that Venezuelan research was already censored and underfunded before the election, but that they anticipate things will get even worse. They point to a bill passed by Maduro’s administration last month that regulates non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which some researchers rely on for funding or to help publish their research. This latest chapter in Maduro’s reign could spell the end for independent science in the country, they say.

“I am afraid to talk to you,” retired biologist Jaime Requena told Nature as he nervously prepared to leave the country, fearing that his passport would be confiscated by authorities to prevent his departure. “Science here is going down the drain quickly.”

The Maduro administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Power for Science and Technology has reported that about 24,000 people are employed in research and development. However, that number is an overestimate because it includes anyone who has a degree and staff who clean and maintain laboratories, says Requena, who has been monitoring the number of scientists in the country. In 2004, when science in Venezuela was more stable, there were only about 7,100 scientists actively engaged in research in the country, says Requena, who is a member of the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences.

Because the science ministry no longer publishes clear, reliable information on its spending, Requena assesses research output in scientific journals as an indicator of the health of Venezuelan science. An as-yet unpublished analysis that he carried out last year suggests that there are now, at most, 1,200 still-active scientists.

Leaving in droves

Protests erupted after Maduro was named the winner of the July presidential election. The European Union, the United States and most South American countries have questioned the legitimacy of the result and called for Maduro to release a full tally of the votes.

Venezuela’s economy has been in crisis since Maduro took office in 2013. The country’s gross domestic product fell from about US$373 billion at its peak in 2012 to about $44 billion at its lowest point in 2020 and has now recovered slightly to $106 billion. National science funding is around 0.3–0.4% of that (the average for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is 2.7%). Nearly 8 million people — about one-quarter of Venezuela's population — are estimated to have fled to avoid violence, hunger and poverty.

Young scientists have left in droves seeking out high-quality education or stable career prospects. Those who remain are mostly older researchers — Requena’s research suggests the average age is 55 — who are financially stable or can use international connections to get funding.

But even senior researchers have left, too. María Eugenia Grillet, a 64-year-old biologist who studies the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases, moved to Colombia in December 2023 to avoid power outages and to be able to conduct research freely, among other factors. Before that, she had been a researcher at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, where she earned $70 per month. “Daily life is very hard for everyone, and it’s going to get worse given the political situation,” she says.

In short supply

Public research institutions and universities, which employ the vast majority of the scientists that remain in Venezuela, are having trouble keeping their doors open because of the government’s lack of revenue, and because of politically-appointed officials mismanaging education and science budgets, researchers say. Equipment, supplies and personnel are all scarce.

“But it’s not just funding” that’s a problem, says Cristina Burelli, the director of SOSOrinoco, an advocacy group in Caracas that works with researchers who anonymously document the ecological degradation of the country’s forests. “It’s the de-institutionalization and de-professionalization of the industry,” she adds. “It’s the deliberate effort to take out anyone who knows anything, anyone who can question the government.”

Academic freedom in the country began to disappear under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, whose government, in the name of twenty-first-century socialism, took control of funding that had previously been given directly to researchers by private companies. Chávez also gave ‘communal councils’ — groups of local citizens — the power to set university budgets and elect university vice-chancellors.

A terrifying law

Today, people who study topics that potentially present a publicity problem for Venezuela — the resurgence of once-eradicated diseases or the pollution of the Amazon rainforest as a result of illegal mining, for instance — tell Nature that they work anonymously, or from another country where they are out of the government’s reach, or they self-censor what they publish.

Researchers are concerned by the passing of a law, which rights groups have called the anti-NGO bill. Approved on 15 August, this legislation requires NGOs to share information about their funding, which is sometimes awarded to research projects, with the Venezuelan government. According to the law, this is to ensure that civil-society groups do not promote “fascism, intolerance or hatred for racial, ethnic, religious, political, social, ideological, or gender reasons”.

Researchers who spoke to Nature say that the law gives the government the discretion to prosecute anyone whose motives it does not agree with. “Academics at [leading universities] are absolutely terrified by the anti-NGO law and are therefore silenced,” a group of Venezuelan researchers told Nature in a statement after they requested anonymity.

Requena says that science in Venezuela is one step closer to its death. “Science ensures that we are not isolated, that our brains can come together to produce things that help all of humanity,” he says. “It gives a sense of being part of humanity, and I can’t imagine not feeling like I’m a part of humanity.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03144-4

This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Luke Taylor