Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views: Yon Goicochea gets the Milton Friedman prize
Venezuela News And Views
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Yon Goicochea gets the Milton Friedman prize
The Milton Friedman award is given every two years since 2002 to the person who has represented the best the fight for individual rights and freedom. This year in what can only be considered a stunning move, the winner is Yon Goicochea, the most prominent leader of the student movement through 2007 (shown on the right after being gassed at some rally). That movement was possibly the biggest factor in stopping the approval of the December 2 referendum in Venezuela, a vote on a proposal that would have been a step back to an obscurantist past where individual rights are sacrificed by the state in benefit of diffuse collective interests. Such diffuse interests, history teaches us, always end up being hijacked by a minority "elite" which controls the state in the name of the collective. OR as I mentioned in my post on Ayn Rand for Venezuela:
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
Surely Yon Goicochea is a deserving winner.
PS: And what better way to celebrate the award for yon than to sign a petition for Zimbabwe as Mugabe is showing the way to Chavez on to steal elections outright in front of compliant neighbors!
PS2: Of course this shows how pathetically Chavez has lost the P.R. wars outside. I will not speculate at this point on how the government is going to react to this, how they are going to slander Yon and probably prosecute him on any silly reason (probably asking him for taxes or accusing him of illegal financial transactions for starters). But Yon is a big boy and from the picture of him I chose I am sure he has the mettle to resist. Meanwhile what does the Qaddafi award winner do? He summoned his paid client state "leaders", Evo, Ortega and Lage (curiously Raul did not come) for a surprise ALBA summit to defend Bolivia against its "secessionist" provinces. Ah! The irony! Chavez attacking Santa Cruz while he defends the very same objectives coming from the FARC!
Written from the Venezuelan provinces, this blog started as private letters to my friends overseas, letters narrating the difficult days of the 2002/2003 strike in Venezuela. These letters became this mix of news, comments, pictures of the Venezuelan situation. Unknowingly, I have written the diary of Venezuela slow descent into authoritarianism, the slow erosion of our liberties, the takeover of the country by a military caste, the surrendering of our soul to our inner demons.
Click logo above to go directly to the English language blog. Click here to go to the Spanish language mirror.
Estamos en Venezuela, nunca se sabe. In spite of its Spanish title, an irregular blog about a French student observing Venezuela. Interesting pictures.
General info and discontinued blogs but with good archives
Venezuela Crisis has a visual and textual record "hors pair" of the recent electoral campaign in Venezuela, the first blogger to have covered live a Venezuelan campaign. Seems to be on a resting phase for a few weeks.
Digital papers with Venezuela and LatAm in mind (in Spanish)
There are two major digital papers with forums and all, for a permanent clash between factions. Noticiero Digital is the oldest one and Noticias 24 is giving it a run for tis money.
And a new comer:Venezuela es noticia.
Ciudadania Activa has a large selection of articles on Venezuelan politics and civil rights issues.
Relevant info to expose some of the regime's propaganda and human rights violations
The lies of April
The famous "infamous" video "The revolution will not be televised" has been duly analyzed and shown to be in large measure a crass manipulation. Counter-video in Spanish here, and summary of main points here.
There is a documentary that follows the April 2002 events from the perspective on what Chavez did that April 11, "La Cadena". It is about the forced broadcast made by Chavez to hide the massacre of the pacific march on Miraflores.
The infamous apartheid like system of the Tascon and Maisanta lists
The compilation of various documents from Miguel.
The video "La Lista" and my reviews in English and Spanish by invitation at Hispalibertas.
The El Nacional review of Perez Oramas.
The original video itself can be seen here.
Diverse Human Rights pages
Of course, from Amnesty International to the Human Rights Watch page, without forgetting local organizations such as prestigious COFAVIC, the Venezuelan government comes only too often lacking in its Human Rights record.
OTHER FOLKS WITH VENEZUELA MORE OR LESS IN THEIR MIND (Please send links that should be added here)
And of course to be fair there must be links to pro-Chavez sites. I do pride myself of having been the first opposition blog to have listed pro Chavez links; a situation that has now changed. However extremely rare is the pro Chavez page or blog that links to any of the sites listed above. The readers might draw their own conclusion
Aporrea (Beat up, bruise! as in the imperative mode of the verb; the only interesting one if you can read Spanish. Predicts the future)
And of course the full time propaganda agencies, ALL at tax payer expenses, the National Radio coverage, RNV, and the rather deficient official news agency, ABN (both in Spanish).
Without forgetting the "official" newsletter in English.
Some blogs, more or less sycophantic.
Yosmary, campaigning for Mario Silva, quite something.
Less sycophantic, even critical on occasion Terreno baldio.
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Map of Venezuela to help you locate the different locales mentioned through the blog (click here for a more detailed map)
For the memories. The picture below dates from the epic days of the December 2002/January 2003 "El Paro", when the opposition was strong and decided, and when Chavez was low in polls.
Then came the "misiones" and the worst populist episode of our history. Through pacific protests and strikes we tried to preserve democracy.
History proved us right even if we lost that battle.
Marching toward Hotel Melia, 01/31/03, 5 PM.
Small yellow square under the Pepsi ball is the big stage.
A special thanks to JoAnne Schmitz for the suggestions and help in setting this blog up.
fight for individual rights and freedom. This year in what can only be considered a stunning move, the winner is Yon Goicochea, the most prominent leader of the student movement through 2007 (shown on the right after being gassed at some rally). That movement was possibly the biggest factor in stopping the approval of the December 2 referendum in Venezuela, a vote on a proposal that would have been a step back to an obscurantist past where individual rights are sacrificed by the state in benefit of diffuse collective interests. Such diffuse interests, history teaches us, always end up being hijacked by a minority "elite" which controls the state in the name of the collective. OR as I mentioned in my post on Ayn Rand for Venezuela:
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
