Sir
Your Editorial (Nature 450, 922; 2007) brings welcome attention to Venezuelan science and to the defeat of President Chávez's proposed reforms to allow himself to stay in power indefinitely. But I do not agree with your remarks about resources.
Students are not all from upper-middle-class backgrounds — a social category that Chávez has removed anyway, by quenching private enterprise. For decades, university students have been drawn from the middle and lower classes, and all the more so now, when the Gucci-clad revolutionary leaders claim that nearly a million of the country's 26 million people are studying at university.
The Organic Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LOCTI) may support some worthwhile projects, but they are funded by compulsory tax deductions that otherwise would go to the Ministry of Science and Technology, largely known for its incapacity to administer anything. Last year, it failed to spend 75% of its budget. Current government policy is to use LOCTI funds to pay science and technology research grants, but hundreds of sound scientific projects — especially in social sciences — go unfunded. During 2006, the only available source of funding for science was the Misión Ciencia, a presidential initiative, as the government did not support other funding opportunities.