Members of what was surely the Venezuelan regime’s secret police yesterday kidnapped opposition leader and 2008 Milton Friedman Prize winner Yon Goicoechea from his car after he left his home. Diosdado Cabello, the second most powerful person in the regime, publicly announced that the government had arrested Yon on the bogus claim that he was carrying explosives. In the video broadcast on national television, Cabello referred to the $500,000 Friedman Prize award that Yon received as evidence that Yon was some sort of foreign-employed agent bent on terrorism. “That man was trained by the U.S. empire for years,” he said, “It looks like his money ran out and he wants to come here to seek blood. They gave him the order there in the United States.”

This is an old trick of the Chavista regime—distract attention from the severe political, economic and social crisis that it has inflicted on the country. Venezuela’s so-called Socialism of the 21st Century has produced shortages of everything from food and water, to medicine and electricity. Hunger is becoming widespread, the rate of violence is among the worst in the world, and the regime has become extremely unpopular. (We have commented on this downward spiral here, here, here, and here).

Yon won the Friedman Prize in 2008 for having led the student movement that played the central role in defeating the constitutional reform that would have given Hugo Chavez what at that time would have been an unprecedented concentration of political and economic power. One of Yon’s and the student movement’s central tenets is their advocacy of non-violence in the promotion of basic freedoms and democracy. Yon also offers an optimistic vision about the future and potential of his country (see his Friedman Prize acceptance speech here). That approach contrasts with the regime’s constant reliance on repression and force and helps explain its appeal to most Venezuelans. For the same reason, the government’s claim of terrorism on Yon’s part lacks any credibility. The idea that the Friedman Prize is awarded so that the recipient carry out specific tasks is also risible. The prize is given “to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advance human freedom,” and has no conditions attached to it whatsoever. It has been awarded to numerous freedom champions from around the world including prominent reformers and human rights and freedom of speech advocates.

Yon’s detention comes just prior to massive popular protests against the government that are planned for this Thursday. Sticking to the pattern it has followed over the past few years as the crisis has deepened, the regime is doubling down on repression rather than adjusting to political or economic reality. His kidnapping shows just how insecure the regime has become and the importance of speaking truth to power.

In the months and days prior to Yon’s detention, the regime has arrested other opposition leaders and activists. Nobody is sure exactly where Yon is being held or under what conditions (though we believe he is in a cell at the headquarters of the secret police in Caracas). The Venezuelan government stopped being democratic and respecting the rule of law years ago, but we nevertheless call on it to release Yon immediately and treat him with the basic rights to due process that should be afforded to any Venezuelan citizen.