Chavez Opponent to Receive Milton Friedman Award for Liberty

by AlvarezGalloso | May 12, 2008 at 06:46 am | 292 views | 4 comments

Hugo Chavez cuenta su version de lo que paso el 11 de abril

Cronaca di un golpe fallito (Venezuela, 11-14 aprile 2002)

Yon Goicoechea who is a principal opponent of Venezuelan Head of State Chavez will be in the United States this week to receive the Milton Friedman Award for the Advancement of Liberty. In spite of the accusations by Chavez of being a “Right Wing US Puppet”, Goicoechea does not believe in the Right, Left, Center, or any of the ridiculous classifications that have distorted politics for more than two centuries. He is a believer in the fact that the state does not necessarily resolve the problems of countries and people. He also quotes Barrack Obama’s phrase: “We Can Change

http://espanol.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/080511/latinoamerica/ams_gen_venezuela

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AlvarezGalloso

at 06:47 on May 12th, 2008

I am having problems editing.

rahul

at 12:09 on May 12th, 2008

May I bring to the attention of readers that Jon Goicochea is certainly not the main opponent to Chavez. He is just another emerging leader from the rightist side of the legitimate opposition. He is used to counteract other pro government student leaders.

The Chavez administration has used this award to link Goicochea to the extreme right. As it is well known, Firedman was in favour of dictatorship in Chile during the times of Augusto Pinochet. He was also involved in reganomics and Margaret Thatcher economic policies. But that is really not what beams out of Goicochea. His interview at Playboy magazine is rather telling. Furthermore and as an example of local magic realism in Latin America, the father of Yon Goicochea is in jail. He serves a jail term for having killed a student.

AlvarezGalloso

at 12:49 on May 12th, 2008

Rahul and to the readers. Before publishing this article about Jon Goicochea, I read all of the articles about him. I also read about Milton Friedman. It is easy to condemn Goicochea and Friedman and say they are right wing but actually Milton Friedman was a Libertarian in the Political and Economic Sense while the Traditional Right and Left were believers in a State regulating life. In fact, Milton Friedman wanted to decriminalize drugs and let the market take over in that section. Regardless, Thank You Rahul for your contribution.

rahul

at 13:24 on May 12th, 2008

Cave hic Leviathan!: Danger, there is a Leviathan! There is a rightist thinking which prefers a military dictatorship over democratic socialism. I am afraid Milton Friedman falls at that particular lot that only cares about liberal market and the economic men. It was sad to see such "liberal thinking" applied in Chile when the democratically elected government of Socialist Salvador Allende was overthrown. At that time, many people were killed, disappeared, became refugees or are just still missing. Pinochet is gone now and Chile has a solid liberal economy but its society is certainly divided. Such bad case for economic betterment without social improvements make us wonder on the actual political changes taking place in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Perhaps they would end up allowing changes without killing political foes or disappearing the opposition

To amend the extreme right overthrowing tendencies, Samuel Huntington wrote a book on democratization called "The Third Wave". It describes such political thinking in marvellous details. Jeane Kirkpatrick might also ring bells when recalling reagonomics. Democracy is constantly jeopardized by both extreme right and left.

Venezuela had a bout of such extreme right overthrowing thinking in 2002. The Opus Dei orchestrated - with local media and US assistance- a coup against President Chavez. In just three days, we witnessed how members of the cabinet were persecuted by the self appointed government. To make things clearer, s self appointed President, Mr. Estanga, was also leader of Fedecamaras, that is, the local Business Chamber.

Sadly, Jon Goicochea is very much in tone and friendship with such rightists. Furthermore, Goicochea was seen in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, during the recent private consultation wrongly called "referendum". He is close to Bolivian students known for their racist rejection of indigenous peoples.