Sir

You indicate that President Hugo Chávez has broadly supported universities and scientific research (Nature 450, 922; 2007). But you report that his proposals to bolster his powers and retain his position indefinitely have been met with opposition, spearheaded by protest marches of hundreds of thousands of students and their professors.

As rector of Simón Bolívar University and vice-president of Venezuela's Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, I disagree with your suggested explanation for this apparent inconsistency, that students in public Venezuelan universities are mostly from the upper middle class.

All students, rich and poor, dislike authoritarian regimes. Student protests were sparked off in May after Chávez ordered the closure of a major television station whose views opposed those of his government. Students demand freedom of speech and — confronted with the president's insistence on imposing a narrow-minded Cuban-style socialist state on Venezuela — freedom of choice. They want universities to stay autonomous and free from government intervention. Their fight is not about left-wing or right-wing politics, but to reconcile opposing and radical views in the interests of their own future.