Mexican government charges against academics criticized

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has so many criminals to deal with that critics are openly wondering why the government has sought to lock up 31 academics, professors and researchers in the country’s top maximum security prison. The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has charged the university professors with improperly receiving money from a government science fund. But the $2.5 million funding was legal when it was received. A judge at the Altiplano prison denied prosecutors’ request for arrest warrants against the academics Wednesday. But the whole episode lent heft to accusations that López Obrador’s government has sought to politize academic life in Mexico.