Calderon accepts Harvard fellowship

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accepted a teaching and research position at Harvard University, his office and the school said in statements.

The politically conservative Calderon will finish his six-year term Saturday, and will begin a one-year fellowship at the Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2013.

In inviting him to Harvard, the Cambridge, Mass., school emphasized Calderon's "pro-business" economic policies and government reforms in areas including healthcare and climate change. He earned a master's degree in public administration from the school in 2000.

Omitted from the welcome was Mexico's military-led campaign against drug cartels, under his order, leaving scores of civilians dead or missing, the Los Angeles Times noted Thursday.

Earlier this year, Calderon was in negotiations to teach at the University of Texas at Austin, sparking protests by students and faculty. A petition organizer told a news outlet at the time Calderon's presence at the school would be comparable to telling Mexicans, "We don't care about your pain ... . We don't care your country has been ravaged."

Calderon will hand over Mexico's symbolic presidential sash to Enrique Pena Nieto Saturday in a ceremony in the country's lower house of Congress.