An announcement that raises the flag to the state level

In addition to the appointments to her cabinet, some questionable and others unexpected, Mexico's virtual president today surprised the country by announcing the creation of a government. New secretariat: Science, humanities, technology and innovationWhose first owner will be Dr. Rosaura Ruiz.

If form is substance, with this announcement Claudia Sheinbaum has sent several messages with this historic decision: the status of science as a sector of paramount importance for the Mexican state; The status given to this announcement, which comes before other traditionally preferred appointments such as defense or security, represents a priority consistent with Sheinbaum's academic and scientific origins; It may also be a message to restore confidence in what his government will be in academic sectors that are highly critical of the Fourth Transformation due to, among other things, the sectarian, authoritarian and even anti-scientific streak that has characterized the country's leadership. The so-called new Conahcyt, headed by the outgoing María Elena Álvarez-Buela.

Rosaura Ruiz, a woman with a strong academic and administrative career, is an official very close to the President-elect and also a respected figure in the scientific and university fields in general. At that time, she did not become the first female rector of UNAM, but she subsequently showed support for broad and multiple sectors of the country's highest house of studies. And now she will go down in history as the first head of the Emerging Science and Technology Secretariat in a country that desperately needs investment in quality education, research and development that depends not on political times but on the long-term times and freedom it enjoys. It requires science and research in general. So the next step for Claudia Sheinbaum to take to remain consistent is to give her new secretary the necessary space to work and the necessary resources so that the country has a Ministry of Sciences, Humanities, Technology and Innovation capable of making a real difference and then in the development of Mexico.

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