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1/117 OCTOBER 2014 VOL 346 ISSUE 6207 28SCIENCE sciencemag.org

By Lizzie Wade

When ngel Sarmiento discoveredthat eight patients had died ofan unidentified fever in less than2 weeks in Maracay, the capitalof Aragua state in Venezuela, hedid what he was supposed to do:

sound the alarm. In a press conference on11 September, the president of Araguas

College of Physicians revealed the spate ofdeaths and declared, We dont know whatwere facing. But instead of applaudingSarmiento, Venezuelan President NicolsMaduro accused the physician in a televisedspeech on 17 September of fomenting psy-chological terrorism and instructed his at-torney general to open a case against him.Sarmiento fled the country a few days later.

The episode continues to reverberate inVenezuela, where intellectuals consider it asignal of the central governments disdainfor science and the medical establishment.What they want is to silence all of us, says

Feder lvarez, a pediatrician and secretaryof Araguas College of Physicians. Theyrenot just persecuting ngel. Theyre persecut-ing the medical community.

Scientists, too, feel beleaguered. Objec-tivity and critical thinkingkey values ofscienceare very much at odds with theprevailing winds in Venezuela, says RicardoHausmann, a Venezuelan economist whoteaches at Harvard University. Last month,Hausmann found himself accused by Maduro,again on national television, of conspiringagainst the government after publishing a

syndicated op-ed about the countrys direeconomic straits titled Should VenezuelaDefault? Hausmann worries that if he wereto return to Venezuela, he could face monthsor years in prison, even before standing trial.

Within the country, scientists must copewith byzantine rules. The central govern-ment wants control over every step of anexperiment, says a university-based molecu-lar biologist who requested anonymity. For

ecological fieldwork, collecting areas mustbe strictly specified in advance. For experi-ments of any sort, researchers must fill outforms every 6 months articulating the prog-ress theyve made toward predeterminedgoals, with little flexibility to follow newthreads, the biologist laments.

Whenever scientists want to sequencenonhuman DNA, they must apply for per-mission from the countrys environmentministry in the form of a contract for accessto genetic resources. The government saysthat the requirement protects Venezuelasbiodiversity and indigenous knowledge from

capitalist exploitation. Out of 11 contractsIve applied for, theyve granted two, thebiologist says. Because phylogenetics andother evolutionary studies require sequenc-ing many related organisms, such studiesare little more than pipe dreams for scien-tists at Venezuelan universities.

I have to decide, the biologist says, amI willing to spend my entire life filling outforms, asking permission, waiting for years,and in the end still be subject to the latentthreat of fines or imprisonment if I accessgenetic resources I didnt originally ask per-

mission for? Sequencing human DNA simpler, however, requiring no official pemission. That opens the way to certain kinof medical diagnostics and other testsanmay also make it easier for the central goernment to maintain a forensic database, th

biologist says.Some observers trace the persecution

scientists to the populist governments ditrust of intellectuals. The authority thcomes from knowledge tends to be stubboand irreverent, so [in Maduros eyes] its beter that its crushed, Hausmann says.

Since Sarmiento left the country, the Argua outbreak has come into sharper focuLast month, three doctors affiliated with thCentral University of Venezuela announcthat the unidentified fever is chikungunya mosquito-borne disease that is spreadinin the Americas. There is no mystery here

says Gustavo Villasmil, health minister the state of Miranda. Weeks ago, he says, aindependent lab confirmed that six of thfirst eight patients who succumbed to the fver tested positive for chikungunya. Becauthe disease has a mortality rate of about onin 1000, those fatalities are likely the tof the iceberg of a widespread outbreak Venezuela, says Julio Castro, health ministof the municipality of Sucre.

Were hoping there will come a momewhen the central government understanthat theres no sense in denying the sitution, Villasmil says. Hausmann is pessim

tic: They dont perceive [the epidemic] asproblem of public health. They perceive it a problem of public opinion. As of 14 Octber, chikungunya infections and deaths wenot being reported in the federal health miistrys weekly epidemiological bulletin.

Villasmil, a member of the political oposition who has stated boldly and publicthat Venezuela is in the throes of a chikugunya epidemic, says he cant help lookinover his shoulder. Here, you can never rally calm down, he says. Thats the problewith police states. PH

OTO:APPHOTO/JOHN

MINCHILLO

Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro took to

the airwaves last month to accuse a physician of

psychological terrorism.

I N D EP T H

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

For Venezuelan academics,

speaking out is risky businessGovernment attacks some, snares many in red tape

Published by AAAS