Friedman Liberty Prize. And the winner is...

From Cato.org:

Yon Goicoechea, leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela, has been awarded the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Under Goicoechea's leadership, the student movement organized mass opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in Venezuela and played the key role in defeating Hugo Chávez's bid for a constitutional reform that would have turned the country into a dictatorship. Goicoechea's vision of optimism, tolerance, and modernity has breathed new life into efforts to defend basic freedoms in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America where freedom is threatened. Full details.

Congratulations Yon!!

Update: Friedman committee member arrested in raid

From Tom Palmer:

Andrew Mwenda (see above) has been arrested, along with his colleagues Odobo Bichachi and John Njoroge, in a raid by the Ugandan government on the magazine Independence. Andrew is a member of the 2008 International Selection Committee for the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, which just announced on Thursday the award of the prize to Venezuelan student Yon Goicoechea.

Write to the Ugandan government to insist on freedom of the press and freedom for Andrew Mwenda, Odobo Bichachi, and John Njoroge, (The Ugandan Embassy can be contacted by mail, email, fax or phone: details here. Please be respectful, but direct, clear, and forceful.)