Harvard Slammed For Giving Ex-President Of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, One-Year Fellowship

The Huffington Post: January 7, 2013.

Harvard is taking flack for handing a fellowship to former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who led an assault on organized crime that plunged his country into a human rights crisis.

Calderón is set to begin lecturing at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government this month as the university’s first Angelopoulous Global Public Leaders fellow. Critics point to the startling violence that characterized Calderón’s presidency, saying he shouldn’t be rewarded with a paid position at a prestigious university.

“In awarding Mr. Calderón a high-profile fellowship, the Kennedy School is telling the world that former leaders, however questionable their leadership, are worthy of recognition,” Marion Lloyd, a Harvard alum and researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. “It is an unfortunate and dangerous message.”

An estimated 60,000 people died violent deaths during Calderón’s presidency. Mexico’s attorney general has documented 25,000 disappearances during that time. Read more.