A New Leader

The opposition in Venezuela has come up with different new faces. One of new faces is Yon Goicoechea. He is a Law Student in the Andres Bello Catholic University and has become the biggest asset of the opposition because of that he has also become the biggest enemy of the Chavez administration.

His attitude and actions have recently awarded him with the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. But seeing Yon on the stage with a huge troupe of Venezuelan students who had traveled to the US for the award, all decked in Venezuelan flags and the t-shirts and symbols (a white hand) of the opposition was truly moving. The standing ovation was spontaneous, sustained, and an expression of solidarity for young people who have shown courage and perseverance in the face of an emerging fascist dictatorship and who have given hope to their generation and to their elders, too many of whom had resigned themselves to being bullied, silenced, and oppressed.