Today The Instituto Juan de Mariana has awarded the “Premio Juan de Mariana” to Acton’s Director of International Outreach Alex Chafuen. This award recognizes an exemplary career in the defense of freedom and liberty.

The Juan de Mariana Prize is presented at the Freedom Dinner as a part of Freedom Week.

Chafuen was recognized especially for his work at the Atlas Network. During 26 years with Chafuen in a leading role, Atlas brought together more than 450 institutions from almost 100 countries around the world working for freedom and provided them with mon space for learning and invaluable support. Notable plishments include:

The formation and training of the leaders of liberal think tanks by creating value by bringing together mon knowledge and experiences accumulated over decades in the different organizations of the network.Providing economic support for the launching and promotion of numerous initiatives in defense of freedomPromoting policy reforms with specific and measurable effects in the short term of the respective countries, thanks to the proposals developed by the think tanks in the framework of petitions organized by Atlas.The production of rigorous research studies which served as reference in the political and social spheres of the respective countries.Efforts to improve the processes of measuring economic freedom.

Past winners of the Juan de Mariana Prize include Luis Reig Albiol (2007), Manuel Ayau Cordón (2008), Anthony de Jasay (2009), Carlos Alberto Montaner (2010), Giancarlo Ibargüen (2011), Mario Vargas Llosa (2012) ), Carlos Rodríguez Braun (2013), Pedro Schwartz (2014), Robert Higgs (2015), Jesús Huerta de Soto (2016) and Alberto Benegas Lynch (h) (2017).

You can find more information about this award here (in Spanish).

For more information on the historical Juan de Marina, see the video from Acton’s Globalization, Justice, and the Economy: The Jesuit Contribution Conference.