Hernando de Soto (1941- )
By
Jul 19, 2000
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|  ased in Lima, Peru, Hernando De Soto is president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy and author of The Mystery of Capitalism, which explores the link between poverty and lack of property titles in under developed nations. Economist Milton Friedman considers De Soto's ILD property and asset title programs an effective way of lifting nations out of poverty. As Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's Personal Representative and Principal Advisor, De Soto initiated polices that stabilized Peru's economy, established a system of real property titles, and brought 380,000 black market businesses into the legal market. De Soto's ILD programs were considered such a threat to poverty dependent communist insurgency that the Maoist Shining Path terrorist organization targeted him and ILD for assassination/destruction in the late 1980s. De Soto and his ILD survived the attempts and his programs are now sought after in Latin America, Asia, and post-communist countries.
Why Hernando De Soto is important to the ideals of freedom: Hernando De Soto saw the link between underdevelopment and poverty and lack of property rights and titles in Third World nations. Through the programs developed by his Institute for Liberty and Democracy he has successfully demonstrated that when governmental regulations are lifted a people's entrepreneurial spirit is unleashed.
"In most countries, including my own, the idea is we the government will tell you what is good for you. In this case, the responsibility of carrying out the administration has been thrown at the people themselves. That trust in people is essentially what characterizes Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries going from being elite-led nations to those of nations that have grass-root economies."
- Hernando De Soto. |
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