Iris Velázquez/ Reform Agency
Sunday, January 22, 2023 | 2:41 p.m.
CDMX.- For university students who made an effort to graduate from UNAM, the institution’s evasion to withdraw Yasmín Esquivel’s bachelor’s degree, which she fraudulently achieved, is a mockery, said biologist Ruth Irma Pérez.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) granted Pérez the degree of biologist in 1987, the year from which Minister Esquivel’s thesis dates, and which was a “substantial copy” of one presented a year earlier, according to authorities from the now FES Aragon.
In an interview, the expert considered it inconceivable that after having elements that support plagiarism, her alma mater, which was rigorous with her, now does not act.
Those who have obtained a degree from this prestigious university, he said, know the great effort that must be made to achieve a degree.
Pérez said that it took her three years, two for change work and one for the newsroom.
“We are talking about three years, for someone to buy it in a little while, for someone to copy it in a little while and with that job that you do, another abusive one, well, I know it’s smart. It’s the most anti-university thing, in recent days we have been the mockery, and we do not see an answer and that is a mockery, it is a mockery for all the university students”, he considered.
Her work, the biologist specified, included the agroecological characterization of the Veracruz and Puebla territories, sites that she had to visit twice due to an additional requirement from one of the advisors who asked her to collect the botanicals to obtain a signature, print her thesis, and present her professional exam.
Pérez, who throughout his professional career has been certified as an environmental expert, sent letters to Rector Enrique Graue to express his disagreement and ask him to take action in the Esquivel case.
“Until recently, saying that you are a UNAM graduate meant excellence, today it is a source of shame with everything that has happened in the case of plagiarism, the delay and back and forth with which you and the University Council have handled , to put a sanction”, exposed.
“Without major excuses of competence and revisions to what has been proven, please turn the corresponding instruction and cancel the University Degree to practice the profession of Lic. in Law of the plagiarist Yasmín Esquivel”.
The UNAM graduate commented that among her family and friends there are graduates who share this feeling and applauded the university voices that have joined the demand.
Ruth Irma Pérez also asked other members of the university community to express their disagreement.
