This article is in Spanish, and links to another more detailed version of the remarks:
Critican al BM por entrometerse en la política educativa, Jose Galan, La Jornada, September 21, 2006The article cite Octavio Paredes, former President of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, who appears to have claimed undue influence by the World Bank in Mexican policy on science and higher education.
In the past I consulted with the World Bank on a project in Mexico that provided loan funding to support grants to Mexican university and government laboratories. All the Bank people who worked with me on the project have changed jobs since, so I can't be sure of current practice. At that time, however, it seemed to me that Mexican officials were very much in control of the support Mexico was receiving from the Bank. Of course, the Bank staff is there to see that loans do not go to projects that will not have sufficient economic benefits to justify the funds, but a bank refusing to make a bad loan is not interfering with your policy. It is possible, I suppose, that government officials were using the Bank as cover for their own policies. Certainly some officials seek international financing that they really don't need because the guardians of the international projects provide some protection from domestic pressures.
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