Students Demand MIT Professor Resign Over Role In Internacional Corruption Scandal with Brazil’s Odebrecht

• In addition to the petition letter from hundreds of MIT students, dozens of researchers and professors have joined the petition for Luis Videgaray to resign from MIT.

Professor Luis Videgaray must leave MIT, askee students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Who is Luis Videgaray Caso?

Videgaray is the former federal secretary in the Government of Mexican ex president Enrique Peña Nieto, and Videgaray has been involved in the largest corruption scandal in the History of Latin America related to the Brazilian multinational construction company, Odebrecht.

Students and former students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, asked on September 10th for the former Mexican politician, Luis Videgaray Caso, to resign from MIT.

In the letter, the students highlighted with shocking detail the list of criminal activities Videgaray Caso has against him in various accusations of corruption, including those related the cases that’s under investigation including the case of former CEO of Mexican oil company PEMEX, Lozoya.

“We do not know if Videgaray will be found guilty by a judge for committing the crimes himself. However, the breadth and depth of the credible accusations against him raise serious doubts about his moral authority to lead investigative projects,” said the signers of the request in an open letter published in The Tech, MIT’s largest and longest-running newspaper.

Luis Videgaray arrived at MIT in July 2019 as a full professor, lecturer at the Sloan School of Business, and as a distinguished member of the Internet Policy Research Initiative of this university in the United States.

The letter signatories added that Videgaray was appointed as the director of the Artificial Intelligence Policy for the World (AIPW) Project, a hybrid program between the Sloan School of Business and the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing ( SCC) from MIT.

“Schwarzman donated 350 million dollars to MIT to found the SCC and received the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor granted to foreigners by the Mexican Government, in November 2018 by the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Luis Videgaray,” said the students who asked for the resignation of the neoliberal politician.

In addition, the students explained that exercising abuse of power in one country and being rewarded in another, supports corrupt practices and impunity.

“Therefore, MIT must cancel the employment relationship with Luis Videgaray Caso and rescind his appointments as a full professor, as director of AIPW at Sloan and the College of Computing, and as a distinguished member of the Internet Policy Research Initiative,” they stated.

The letter was originally drafted by four MIT students; however, soon after hundreds of MIT students and academics have signed the letter.

Days later, MIT administrators responded with a negative to the students saying the school will not ask for Videgaray resignation.

Source: El Financiero