Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) rector Jorge Olvera García, has just received the Latin American and Caribbean Social Sciences “50 Years” Award, with which the Latin American Council for Social Sciences (CLACSO), during the festivities for their 50th anniversary, recognized the Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (Redalyc).
At the Latin America Colloquium: Politics, Future, Equality conference, which took place in the Mexico City Theater with the participation of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solorzano, Alejandro Encinas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, CLACSO executive secretary Pablo Gentili, acknowledged the “very important work that the UAEM and Redalyc have carried out and will still carry out, in spreading knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean.
After receiving the award, Olvera García said that the push and development of new types of knowledge are fundamental values in the work of public education institutions.
He was accompanied by Redalyc’s general director, Eduardo Aguado López, who said that starting from 2003 UAEM has pushed the idea of giving visibility to the sciences produced in Latin America and an unrestricted access to the scientific literature produced in the region. Olvera García said that because of this, UAEM has made itself as an important part of the open-access ecosystem.
CLACSO, said Pablo Gentili, considers that knowledge produced with public resources should also be free to the public and should be available for any citizen who wants it. “Knowledge is a common good and the struggle against the monopoly of knowledge is a fundamental struggle for Latin America’s democracy,” he said.
At the event, 10 prizes will be awarded to institutions or individuals that stand out for their contribution to the democratic fight in Latin America, the diffusion of knowledge, the democratization of access to higher education and the production of critical thinking.