Latest news with #investigación
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘I don't want my training to go to waste': the Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei's sweeping cuts
Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina's prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve yields of crops such as peanuts, soya beans and sunflowers. But after President Javier Milei imposed sweeping austerity measures, known locally as his 'chainsaw' plan, Amarilla's salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents. In an effort to make ends meet, he signed up to drive for Uber, working four hours a day during the week and six on weekends. 'I'm working between 12 and 13 hours a day [overall],' he says. 'I'm exhausted. It affects the quality of my research, and my teaching. I used to get home and read scientific papers – now I go home and immediately head back out to drive passengers around.' Amarilla is far from alone. Faced with quickly falling salaries, many of Argentina's top scientists are abandoning research or taking on extra work – as ride-share drivers, food vendors, tutors or artisans. Since Milei took office in December 2023, Conicet salaries have lost nearly 35% of their purchasing power, according to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI). Meanwhile, the government froze the hiring of 850 researchers who had already been approved under the previous administration. Other state scientific institutions, like the atomic commission or the agricultural institute, have also been targeted by the president's chainsaw measures. Milei, a self-styled 'anarcho-capitalist' and climate change denier, has targeted Argentina's public science institutions, viewing them as bloated and unnecessary. 'If you think your research is so useful,' he said in a 2024 speech, 'go to the market like any other citizen – publish a book and see if people are interested.' His administration's budget slashing has extended well beyond salaries. According to the UK's Inter-University Council, Milei's government has suspended contracts with academic publishing houses, in effect cutting off access to scientific journals; defunded all international cooperation programmes; and dismantled procurement systems for lab equipment and supplies. In Buenos Aires, cancer researcher Valeria – who asked that her surname not be published out of concern for colleagues – recently abandoned her research entirely. She had been studying a protein expressed in several cancers, hoping to inhibit it as a treatment. But her monthly salary of 950,000 pesos (US$787) no longer covered basic living costs. She now teaches high school biology, where she is paid more. 'I plan to resume my research in another country,' she says. 'I don't want my training to go to waste.' Last month, thousands of scientists dressed as the protagonist of Netflix's Argentinian hit series The Eternaut protested in front of the science ministry. The researchers, with their faces covered by the hero's signature gas mask, denounced a 'scienticide'. But not everybody could attend. In February, a Conicet and Buenos Aires University economic geographer, Jerónimo Montero, started a side job as an electrician to provide for his three kids, in what he calls 'a radical shift' in his life. 'I took the strike day to do an electricity job,' Montero says. 'It was really hard for me to know that my mates were struggling for better working conditions for everyone, including me, while I was passing cables through pipes.' Montero, who studied under the British Marxist geographer David Harvey and researched labour conditions in the garment sector, is paid about 1.5m pesos (US$1,243) a month. But the government's currency strategy, propping up the peso to slow inflation, has made Argentina the most expensive country in Latin America, according to a report by El País. For the public sector workers, real wages have sharply declined against inflation. According to CIICTI, more than 4,000 jobs have been lost across the national science sector since Milei took office. 'In 2024, resignations rose 33% compared to the previous year,' says Gonzalo Sanz Cerbino, a Conicet union representative. 'We're facing a brain drain. Those who don't move to the private sector are going to scientific institutions abroad – places that still value knowledge.' Last month, Córdoba University's bioinformatician and chemist Rodrigo Quiroga reluctantly began to consider leaving Argentina. At the Spanish consulate, where he applied for citizenship, he ran into two other researchers from his university, also preparing their exit. 'Highly trained and educated human resources with multiple postgraduate degrees that we are going to lose … and will probably not return,' says Qurioga. The ideological campaign against science appears to be intensifying. Last week, an executive order curtailed the autonomy of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, a key source of public funding, replacing its board with people designated by the administration. A similar decree is reportedly in the works for CONICET. Social sciences are in the firing line – Milei has dismissed them as 'political propaganda' with no real-world researchers across disciplines see things differently. 'Our work is transdisciplinary - it depends on dialogue with economists, linguists, and social scientists,' says Matías Blaustein, a biologist who has worked at CONICET for over two decades. He leads a team studying cancer's biological, environmental, and social dimensions at the Buenos Aires University. Publicly funded science, he says, plays a fundamental role because it is not commercially biased like the private their research, like Amarilla's, is threatened by a lack of basic lab supplies. 'Our cells need to be kept in liquid nitrogen, and we need carbon dioxide. If those aren't delivered, 20 years' worth of cell lines will die,' he says, adding that researchers are forced to use money from their own pockets or ask for donations from individuals, companies or non-profits to keep it going. 'That would be a tragedy.' Still, many scientists continue working out of sheer passion. 'We feign insanity,' Blaustein says wryly, quoting a popular Argentinian tongue-in-cheek phrase. 'Like the orchestra on the Titanic, we keep playing. We go to protests, we keep researching, because we love our work and believe it helps people. But we don't have enough budget to afford even the basics.'
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘I don't want my training to go to waste': the Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei's sweeping cuts
Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina's prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve yields of crops such as peanuts, soya beans and sunflowers. But after President Javier Milei imposed sweeping austerity measures, known locally as his 'chainsaw' plan, Amarilla's salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents. In an effort to make ends meet, he signed up to drive for Uber, working four hours a day during the week and six on weekends. 'I'm working between 12 and 13 hours a day [overall],' he says. 'I'm exhausted. It affects the quality of my research, and my teaching. I used to get home and read scientific papers – now I go home and immediately head back out to drive passengers around.' Amarilla is far from alone. Faced with quickly falling salaries, many of Argentina's top scientists are abandoning research or taking on extra work – as ride-share drivers, food vendors, tutors or artisans. Since Milei took office in December 2023, Conicet salaries have lost nearly 35% of their purchasing power, according to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI). Meanwhile, the government froze the hiring of 850 researchers who had already been approved under the previous administration. Other state scientific institutions, like the atomic commission or the agricultural institute, have also been targeted by the president's chainsaw measures. Milei, a self-styled 'anarcho-capitalist' and climate change denier, has targeted Argentina's public science institutions, viewing them as bloated and unnecessary. 'If you think your research is so useful,' he said in a 2024 speech, 'go to the market like any other citizen – publish a book and see if people are interested.' His administration's budget slashing has extended well beyond salaries. According to the UK's Inter-University Council, Milei's government has suspended contracts with academic publishing houses, in effect cutting off access to scientific journals; defunded all international cooperation programmes; and dismantled procurement systems for lab equipment and supplies. In Buenos Aires, cancer researcher Valeria – who asked that her surname not be published out of concern for colleagues – recently abandoned her research entirely. She had been studying a protein expressed in several cancers, hoping to inhibit it as a treatment. But her monthly salary of 950,000 pesos (US$787) no longer covered basic living costs. She now teaches high school biology, where she is paid more. 'I plan to resume my research in another country,' she says. 'I don't want my training to go to waste.' Last month, thousands of scientists dressed as the protagonist of Netflix's Argentinian hit series The Eternaut protested in front of the science ministry. The researchers, with their faces covered by the hero's signature gas mask, denounced a 'scienticide'. But not everybody could attend. In February, a Conicet and Buenos Aires University economic geographer, Jerónimo Montero, started a side job as an electrician to provide for his three kids, in what he calls 'a radical shift' in his life. 'I took the strike day to do an electricity job,' Montero says. 'It was really hard for me to know that my mates were struggling for better working conditions for everyone, including me, while I was passing cables through pipes.' Montero, who studied under the British Marxist geographer David Harvey and researched labour conditions in the garment sector, is paid about 1.5m pesos (US$1,243) a month. But the government's currency strategy, propping up the peso to slow inflation, has made Argentina the most expensive country in Latin America, according to a report by El País. For the public sector workers, real wages have sharply declined against inflation. According to CIICTI, more than 4,000 jobs have been lost across the national science sector since Milei took office. 'In 2024, resignations rose 33% compared to the previous year,' says Gonzalo Sanz Cerbino, a Conicet union representative. 'We're facing a brain drain. Those who don't move to the private sector are going to scientific institutions abroad – places that still value knowledge.' Last month, Córdoba University's bioinformatician and chemist Rodrigo Quiroga reluctantly began to consider leaving Argentina. At the Spanish consulate, where he applied for citizenship, he ran into two other researchers from his university, also preparing their exit. 'Highly trained and educated human resources with multiple postgraduate degrees that we are going to lose … and will probably not return,' says Qurioga. The ideological campaign against science appears to be intensifying. Last week, an executive order curtailed the autonomy of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, a key source of public funding, replacing its board with people designated by the administration. A similar decree is reportedly in the works for CONICET. Social sciences are in the firing line – Milei has dismissed them as 'political propaganda' with no real-world researchers across disciplines see things differently. 'Our work is transdisciplinary - it depends on dialogue with economists, linguists, and social scientists,' says Matías Blaustein, a biologist who has worked at CONICET for over two decades. He leads a team studying cancer's biological, environmental, and social dimensions at the Buenos Aires University. Publicly funded science, he says, plays a fundamental role because it is not commercially biased like the private their research, like Amarilla's, is threatened by a lack of basic lab supplies. 'Our cells need to be kept in liquid nitrogen, and we need carbon dioxide. If those aren't delivered, 20 years' worth of cell lines will die,' he says, adding that researchers are forced to use money from their own pockets or ask for donations from individuals, companies or non-profits to keep it going. 'That would be a tragedy.' Still, many scientists continue working out of sheer passion. 'We feign insanity,' Blaustein says wryly, quoting a popular Argentinian tongue-in-cheek phrase. 'Like the orchestra on the Titanic, we keep playing. We go to protests, we keep researching, because we love our work and believe it helps people. But we don't have enough budget to afford even the basics.'
LBCI
30-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Spain socialist heavyweight detained in corruption case: Legal sources
Spanish authorities on Monday detained former top Socialist Party official Santos Cerdan in a corruption case, marking a new blow to left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, judicial sources said. Former transport minister Jose Luis Abalos has also been implicated in the investigation into kickbacks for public contracts. The sources said a Supreme Court judge ordered the detention of Cerdan, who has quit as the ruling party's organization secretary, as there was a "risk" he might try to flee or destroy evidence. AFP
BBC News
19-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Spain: Embattled Sánchez resists clamour for resignation
Seven years after taking office by ousting corruption-ridden conservatives from government, Pedro Sánchez is fighting for his political life amid investigations into alleged graft in his Socialist party (PSOE).On June 12, an ashen-faced prime minister apologised to Spaniards after audio gathered by civil guard investigators was made public and appeared to show the PSOE secretary, Santos Cerdán, discussing commissions paid by companies in exchange for public contracts.Sánchez has not himself been directly implicated, but the Socialist leader who came to power promising to clean up politics is now facing calls to resign from an invigorated who was party number three, has resigned from the PSOE and stepped down as a member of parliament. He is due to appear before the Supreme Court on 25 June. He maintains he has never committed a crime nor been implicit in one. The investigation into commissions is part of an ongoing probe which has already implicated José Luis Ábalos, a former PSOE secretary and transport minister. A third person implicated is Koldo García, an advisor to Ábalos. Both men featured with Cerdán in the recently exposed audio. All three say they have done nothing investigation into Ábalos, which began last year, was damaging for the government but his exit from the cabinet and the PSOE secretary post in 2021 put distance between him and Sánchez. However, the implication of Cerdán is more problematic.Sánchez had repeatedly defended him in the face of claims in the right-wing media over recent months that he was under investigation, and the prime minister even accused the opposition of "slandering honest people" when asked about Cerdán's activities last party secretary, from the northern region of Navarre, was a trusted confidant of the prime minister, playing a crucial role, for example, in negotiating the support of Catalan nationalists to allow the formation of a new government in acknowledging that he "should not have trusted" Cerdán, Sánchez has insisted that he will see out the legislature, which is due to end in a letter to PSOE members he apologised again, while doubling down."There are many issues that affect the lives of the majority – healthcare, housing, pensions, jobs, fighting climate change and defending equality – and for which it is worth fighting still," he wrote. "Challenges that are not solved with headlines or lynchings."However, the opposition has presented the investigation as symptomatic of a corrupt regime, pointing to other probes affecting Sánchez and his circle.A judge has been investigating the prime minister's wife, Begoña Gómez, for possible business irregularities - and his musician brother, David, is due to go on trial for alleged influence peddling in taking up a public post in the south-western city of Badajoz. Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, is also likely to face trial for revealing confidential details of a tax evader. All three deny wrongdoing. Sánchez and his supporters have cast these three affairs as part of a campaign orchestrated by the conservative People's Party (PP), the far-right Vox, right-wing media and factions within the judiciary. A number of judicial experts have expressed surprise at the zeal with which the investigations have been carried a raucous parliamentary session this week, opposition MPs chanted "Dimisión" (Resign) at the prime minister, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, accused him of being "a wolf who has led a corrupt pack".Paco Camas, head of public opinion in Spain for polling firm Ipsos, sees a Sánchez resignation as "political suicide" for his party, because it would almost certainly trigger elections, allowing the PP to form a government, probably with the support of Vox."The overall trend right now is a demobilised electorate on the left, particularly for the Socialist party, and an enormous mobilisation of voters on the right, which is capitalising on the discontent with the government," Camas the Socialist president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, Emiliano García-Page, has warned that "there is no dignified way out" for the as long as Sánchez can keep his fragile parliamentary majority of left-wing and nationalist parties together there is little the opposition can do to bring him that end, the prime minister has been frantically trying to reassure these allies, many of who have voiced outrage at the Cerdán-Ábalos scandal. Camas believes that persuading them to support a 2026 budget could be a way for Sánchez to buy some such plans could be left in tatters were more explosive revelations to emerge, as many in the Socialist party worries will be playing on Sánchez's mind as he heads to the Nato summit in The an assured presence on the international stage, he will arrive with serious doubts about his future and under mounting pressure to raise Spain's defence his government has promised to increase military spending to 2% of economic output this year, it has been resisting calls from the United States and the Nato leadership to raise it further. Sánchez has now refused to accept a target of 5% of GDP for military spending, saying it "would not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive".
The Independent
17-06-2025
- The Independent
Spanish police say Malaga shooting suspect ‘fled three countries in 15 hours'
Spanish police have alleged that a man suspected of shooting two men dead at a bar in Malaga fled through 'three countries in 15 hours'. The two men, understood to be Eddie Lyons Junior and Ross Monaghan, died after a gunman opened fire outside Monaghans Bar in Fuengirola, Malaga, on May 31. The incident prompted a denial from Police Scotland that the incident was linked to a suspected ongoing gang feud which began in March. A man aged 44 was arrested in Liverpool on June 13, according to the National Crime Agency, which supported the arrest alongside Merseyside Police. He then appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court, ahead of extradition proceedings. On Tuesday, the Spanish National Police, which is leading the investigation, alleged the man took a route through 'three countries in less than 15 hours' and used disguises to avoid being detected. It said that it took 'just seven days' to identify him. Police Scotland had previously denied any link between the shootings in Spain and ongoing conflict in the Edinburgh and Glasgow regions. The force said in a statement: 'There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland.' On Tuesday, the Spanish police force said 'two house searches were also carried out in Liverpool and that the man went into hiding in the UK'. A Spanish police spokesperson said: 'In just seven days, the alleged perpetrator was identified. He fled three countries in less than 15 hours, altering his physical appearance to avoid recognition. 'Once in hiding in the United Kingdom, he changed his address to hinder any investigation until Friday afternoon, when he was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) following the issuance of an International Arrest Warrant by Fuengirola Magistrates' Court Number Two.' A spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said: 'On June 13, officers from Merseyside Police arrested a 44-year-old man in the Liverpool area on behalf of the Spanish authorities for two counts of murder. The operation was supported by officers from the NCA's National Extradition Unit. 'The individual appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 14 for the commencement of extradition proceedings. 'He was remanded in custody.' Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston said: 'We have been assisting Spanish colleagues with their investigation into the fatal shootings in Fuengirola. 'We are not aware of any current evidence which suggests the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge. 'We are aware of the statement from the Spanish police and, although we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation in another jurisdiction, our position remains that we have no current evidence to suggest that this incident was orchestrated from Scotland. 'We are aware of the arrest of an individual in the Merseyside area and will continue to support colleagues in Spain where necessary and if required by them.'
