The Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) is becoming a battleground between two factions of the ruling party. On one side is the General Director, José Romero Tellaeche, identified with former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. On the other is the current head of the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, Rosaura Ruiz, a personal friend of President Claudia Sheinbaum. The fight, as is often the case in these circles, is a matter of substance, structural, and ideological.
"The president was categorical: CIDE must return to serving Mexico, not factional interests, not the Anglo-Saxon academy, not those who sought to turn the institution into a Republic independent of the State," Romero stated in a recent interview with the publication Contralínea.
Those close to Romero assure that Ruiz intends to return CIDE to the practices prior to 2018. Romero, as he has explained on various occasions, arrived at CIDE with the mission of reversing a management that, in the words of López Obrador himself, was very similar to conservative universities like ITAM.
They assure that there are various administrative problems with payments to professors and even situations of deterioration in the building's infrastructure.
Ruiz has also been closely following various complaints of alleged gender-based violence and workplace harassment aimed at the General Director.
The Secretary is also said to be in tune with academic Catherine Andrews, who has denounced Romero for alleged plagiarism.
