2008 Milton Friedman Award

Yon Goicoechea, the leader of the Venezuelan Student Movement, has recently been declared the winner of the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. The CATO Institute-sponsored prize of $500,000 will be presented to Goicoechea on May 15 at the Waldorf=Historia Hotel in New York City.

Many credit Goicoechea with thwarting a 2007 referendum which contained 69 constitutional amendments designed to centralize unprecedented economic and political power within the government. At a March 2008 CATO briefing, Gustavo Tovar (another movement leader) said of his fellow panelist, Goicoechea, that “The leaders of the past was just about to say that Chavez won, the leaders of the past. [Yon and Freddy] said, well, you can say whatever you want to say—we are going to the streets. We know that we won and you will have to do what we want to do because we are supported by the truth. We don’t know what supports you. And that day our history changed.”

The Venezuelan Student Movement advances democracy and liberty through peaceful, non-violent means such as the massive student protest marches this December. It emerged in May 2007, after the government order the closure of the nation’s oldest television station, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV).

Goicoechea claims inspiration from historical icons such as Mahatma Ghandi (India) and Slobodon Milosovec (Serbia). He told the New York Times that “We believe in exhausting the democratic options available to us through peaceful action” and “We want social transformation, not a coup…The real coup d’état is coming from Chávez, who wants to perpetuate himself in power.”

The 23-year-old law student has persevered in the fight for human rights despite death threats to him and his family, valuing the future of his people above his own safety. He currently studies at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Past award recipients include British economist Peter Bauer, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, and the former Prime Minister of Estonia Mart Laar. More details can be found at the CATO website.

Bethany Stotts is a Staff Writer at Accuracy in Academia.