Thursday, March 7, 2013

Former Bolivian President, Goni, speaks about Venezuela, Chavez and Latin America

Goni, a Latin America democrat and political veteran, was scheduled to speak at YU's Latin American Business Club on March 5th, 2013 for weeks. Hours before his speech, news of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's (may he rest in peace) death filled media outlets. In the earlier hours of the evening, Nicolas Maduro, standing Vice-President under the Chavez regime, reported the President's passing and called the Bolivarian country to national mourning.

President Sanchez de Lozada was scheduled to speak about the cornerstone of democracy, his perspectives on the Latin American region, and prospects going forward. Notwithstanding, he re-engineered the begining of his talk to focus on the current Venezuelan situation, and what Chavez's death means to Cuba, Venezuela and the region.

I was able to record a video of most of the very eloquent and praiseworthy talk given by Goni. There's also a second part which you may find in Youtube!


More on Goni:

Familiarly known as "Goni", the University of Chicago graduate is a Bolivian politician, businessman, and former President of Bolivia. A lifelong member of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario(MNR), he is credited for using "shock therapy" to save the Bolivian economy. This measure was used by Bolivia in 1985 (when Sánchez de Lozada was Minister of Planning in the government of President Víctor Paz Estenssoro) to cut hyperinflation from an estimated 25,000% to a single digit within a period of 6 weeks. More broadly, he is credited with having engineered the restructuring of the Bolivian state and the dismantling the state-capitalist model that had prevailed in the country since the 1952 Revolution.
Sánchez de Lozada was twice elected President of Bolivia, both times on the MNR ticket. During his first term (1993–97), he initiated a series of landmark social, economic and constitutional reforms. His second term was between 2002-2003.
Currently Goni is a strong advocate of democracy, and speaks at universities and conferences nationwide giving his perspectives and sharing his experience.

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