 August 29th, 2016. Secret police have arrested Yann Goa-Cachea, pro-freedom activist critical of the Venezuelan government. Diostado Cabello, president of Venezuela's legislature and a member of the Venezuelan military, confirmed Goa-Cachea's detention in a broadcast on state-controlled TV. In 2008, Goa-Cachea won the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, for leading the student protest movement in Venezuela. He succeeded in defeating constitutional reforms, which would have given Hugo Chavez unprecedented authoritarian power. But now, the Venezuelan government is using his award to claim that Goa-Cachea was trained by the US Empire for years as an agitator. Goa-Cachea's wife and friends say that his arrest is an attempt to distract from the problems created by Venezuela's socialist government. Once among the wealthiest nations in South America, after nationalizing major industries and acting wage and price controls and imposing other severe restrictions on the economy, Venezuelans are currently experiencing unending shortages of basic goods and services, a shock at 500% inflation rate, mass starvation, and one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. News of Goa-Cachea's arrest comes shortly after the Venezuelan government announced a new law creating forced labor in the country.