The Bond villain libertarians of Guatemala | Washington Examiner

The Bond villain libertarians of Guatemala | Washington Examiner

"Francisco Marroquin -- named after the first Bishop of Guatemala, who translated several of the indigenous languages -- is one of the best universities in Latin America. Its fees are at the upper end of the range, and it sets stiff entrance criteria, including a required fluency in English. All its undergraduates, whether they are studying law, medicine or architecture, are given a basic grounding in the principles of personal liberty and limited government.

"Does that sound like indoctrination? Perhaps it is. But only in the sense that all universities indoctrinate their students. We expect our places of learning to uphold certain standards: Respect for truth, decency towards others, self-restraint.

"What makes Francisco Marroquin unusual is not that it seeks to inculcate values. Rather, it's that those values are not the leftist ones prevalent in almost every other institution of higher education. Instead of promoting anti-racism as the supreme political value, Francisco Marroquin promotes freedom. Safe spaces, micro-aggressions and trigger warnings have no place in these handsome buildings. Students are constantly exhorted to think for themselves.

"To leftists, the place must seem like a Bond villain's lair. Although it's surrounded by Guatemala City, you wouldn't think so when you're there. The campus is in a ravine, overshadowed by the viridian spray of its arboretum -- the university governors take pride in the fact that, unlike some ecologists, they are engaging in practical conservation work rather than demanding that politicians do it for them. A socialist who stumbled upon the place would surely conclude that he had uncovered some "Boys From Brazil" type plot.

"The free-market liberalism taught here has a samizdat feel. Most undergraduates are as opposed to the big-government paternalism that passes for conservatism in Latin America as they are to the Left."