[R-G] Washington Agency Creates Neoliberal University in Venezuela

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4408

Washington Agency Creates Neoliberal University in Venezuela
April 30th 2009, by Eva Golinger

A United States institution linked to security and defense agencies in  
Washington, D.C. has established a program in Venezuela to train youth  
in the principles of "individual liberty, free markets, and limited  
governments."

Called the "El Cato-CEDICE University" (see: http://www.elcato.org/special/cato-univ-venezuela/lunes.html) 
, it is a combined initiative of the Cato Institute in Washington,  
D.C. and the Venezuelan organization, Center for the Dissemination of  
Economic Knowledge for Freedom (CEDICE). It also has the support of  
Venezuelan organizations including the Future Present Foundation,  
which was created by Yon Goicochea, a leader of the Justice First  
political party; National Unity, the coalition of opposition political  
parties created in 2008; and New Bases, the opposition student  
movement of the Metropolitan University.

The El Cato-CEDICE University is planning a seminar that will last  
three days, from Sunday May 24 to Tuesday May 26, 2009. The  
headquarters of this subversive event is the La Escondida ranch, one  
hour from Caracas. The participation fee is 150BsF (US$ 70). According  
to the material published by the Cato Institute, the event will cover  
themes such as "the new global agenda, the world financial crisis,  
populism in Latin America, youth as defenders of freedom, poverty and  
violence, rights to property, the challenges of institutions in the  
21st century, among others."

The "teachers" at the El Cato-CEDICE University include Gabriela  
Calderon, editor of the website ‘elcato.org' and columnist for the  
rightwing newspaper El Universo in Ecuador; Daniel Cordova, dean of  
the Economics Department at the Peruvian University of Applied  
Sciences and also director of Pro-Capital Investment Project, an NGO  
financed by the United States; Otto Guevara, a Costa Rican politician  
and president of the party Free Movement and the Liberal Network of  
Latin America (RELIAL); Martin Krause, lecturer in the Higher School  
of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires; Carlos  
Sabino from the Center for Global Prosperity of the Independent  
Institute in the U.S.; Jose Toro Hardy, Venezuelan economist for  
CEDICE; Alvaro Vargas Llosa from the Center for Global Prosperity of  
the Independent Institute in the U.S and a columnist for the  
Washington Post; and Yon Goicochea, a leader of the Justice First  
party and founder of the Future Present Foundation, an organization  
dedicated to training youth in the tactics of "gradual coup"[1] and  
subversion.

The seminar has scheduled conferences by the guest lecturers around  
themes such as "Economic Freedom and Human Progress", given by Jose  
Toro Hardy, "Promoting Ideas in Non-Free Countries" by the Ecuadorian  
Gabriela Calderon, and "Liberalism in the Political Arena" by the  
Costa Rican Otto Guevara, among others.

The Cato Institute is the entity which granted the "Milton Friedman  
Prize" to the leader of Justice First, Yon Goicochea, in 2008. As part  
of this recognition by one of the most ultra-conservative and neo- 
fascist institutions of the United States, Goicochea received US$  
500,000, part of which he used to create his Future Present  
Foundation. The Cato Institute was founded on the economic theories of  
the ultra-liberal Milton Friedman of the U.S., who was economic  
advisor to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. This institute also  
served to promote the conservative ideology of the 80s promoted by  
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the group of the "Chicago Boys"  
who later implemented these policies in Latin American, causing a lot  
of misery and poverty and less progress and human prosperity. The Cato  
Institute is closely linked with the Military Industrial Complex and  
the security and defense agencies in Washington.

CEDICE is one of the organizations that have received the most  
financing from the agencies in Washington over the last 8 years, like  
[National Endowment for Democracy] NED, [U.S. Agency for International  
Development] USAID, and the Center for International Private  
Enterprise (CIPE), an entity of the State Department. Its director,  
Rocio Guijarra, signed the infamous Carmona Decree during the coup  
d'etat of April 2002 against the Venezuelan government, which resulted  
in the dissolution of the democratic institutions of Venezuela.

The fact that this "university" is opening its doors within Venezuelan  
territory is an indication of the destabilizing and subversive actions  
that the radical sectors of the opposition in Venezuela continue to  
conduct. The general population and the state security bodies should  
be alarmed that these foreign actors have come to this country to  
train a group of 50 young people in neoliberal doctrines and  
strategies of subversion. These organizations aren't filled with good  
intentions, but rather they are groups and political figures who have  
shown over the last few years that their principal objective is to  
other throw the revolutionary socialist government of President Hugo  
Chavez and implement a neoliberal-capitalist system in the country,  
subordinated to the interests of Washington.

In the past, leaders of the opposition like Yon Goicochea, have  
traveled overseas, financed by Washington agencies, to receive  
training and indoctrination in strategies of subversion and "gradual  
coup" tactics. Now, they want to give these workshops on Venezuelan  
soil, with the intention of capturing and recruiting Venezuelan youth  
to execute their undemocratic and ill-fated plans. This initiative is  
in addition to the dozen United States and European organizations and  
foundations such as USAID, NED, Freedom House, the International  
Republic Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the  
Konrad Adenauer Foundation (German), the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung  
Foundation (German), FOCAL (Canadian), that have financed political  
parties and NGOs of the opposition with over $50 million over the last  
8 years, promoting their actions of destabilization. The state  
security bodies should take appropriate actions to impede these  
foreign agencies from continuing to threaten the stability and  
progress of the country. And even less should they allow them to act  
in this manner on Venezuelan territory.

[1] Gradual coup, or golpe suave in Spanish, is the idea of  
incremental acts of sabotage, fear mongering, and media warfare to  
obstruct the government's policies.

Translated by Tamara Pearson