Your interview with the president of the Latin American Academy of Sciences, Claudio Bifano, barely reflects the scale of the scientific crisis in Venezuela (Nature 535, 336–337; 2016). Its academic brain drain, for instance, is worse than indicated.

The figures you quote for scientists leaving Venezuela are from a preprint we released at the end of last year. Since then, the number has swollen rapidly from 1,504 to 1,820 — up from 1,783 in July, when the full paper was published (J. Requena and C. Caputo Interciencia 41, 444–453; 2016). The latest tally represents almost 15% of Venezuela's scientists, who account for some 33% of its research publications. This rapid loss is coupled with the stalled recruitment of new talent.

This is in lamentable contrast to the end of the last century, when the research community grew by 200 or so Venezuelan scientists a year. Hugo Chávez took over as president in 1999 and, in my view, 16 years of disastrous science policies followed.