Goicochea

<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Birthing the “Generation 2007” regime change cadre</h2><p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The “real work” began two years later, in 2007, when Guaidó graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic University of Caracas. He moved to Washington DC to enroll in the Governance and Political Management <a href="http://sri.ucab.edu.ve/sites/default/files/Convenio%20UCAB-%20CAF%20George%20Washington%20University.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Program</a> at George Washington University under the tutelage of Venezuelan economist Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia, one of the top Latin American neoliberal economists. Berrizbeitia is a <a href="https://www.caf.com/media/3571/resumenexecutive.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">former executive director</a> of the International Monetary Fund who spent more than a decade working in Venezuelan energy sector under the oligarchic old regime that was ousted by Chavez.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That year, Guaidó helped lead anti-government rallies after the Venezuelan government <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2424" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">declined to</a> to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). This privately-owned station played a leading role in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez. RCTV helped mobilize anti-government demonstrators, falsified information blaming government supporters for acts of violence carried out by opposition members, and banned pro-government reporting amid the coup. The role of RCTV and other oligarch-owned stations in driving the failed coup attempt was chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">That same year, the students claimed credit for stymying Chavez’s constitutional referendum for a “21st century socialism” that <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2890" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">promised</a> “to set the legal framework for the political and social reorganization of the country, giving direct power to organized communities as a prerequisite for the development of a new economic system.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">From the protests around RCTV and the referendum, a specialized cadre of US-backed class of regime change activists was born. They called themselves “Generation 2007.”<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The Stratfor and CANVAS trainers of this cell identified Guaidó’s ally – a street organizer named Yon Goicoechea – as a “key factor” in defeating the constitutional referendum. The following year, Goicochea was <a href="https://www.cato.org/friedman-prize/yon-goicoechea" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">rewarded</a> for his efforts with the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with a $500,000 prize, which he promptly invested into building his own Liberty First (Primero Justicia) political network.<p source="Source" sans="Sans" pro="Pro" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">[milton prize px]