Erick left Venezuela to found a PRIVATE CITY on a Caribbean island - "PRÓSPERA" 🌅
He negotiated all constitutional guarantees with the government of Honduras. He invested $100M. Attracted 120 companies.
Until... a socialist was elected in 2022.
And the dream turned into a nightmare.
In 2013, the president of Honduras enacted a law that created the ZEDEs: special zones with their own fiscal and administrative codes.
They only needed to respect criminal laws 🇭🇳
The law had been struck down by the Supreme Court, but it passed after 4 judges were replaced.
There were over 10 ZEDEs in Honduras.
The country has always been a target for those interested in experimenting with "MODEL CITIES."
Plenty of vacant land. Paradise beaches. Cheap labor.
Of these ZEDEs, Próspera was the most famous.
It chose the island of Roatán as its base 🗾.
Roatán is part of an archipelago on the northern coast, famous for diving, and largely uninhabited.
It has an airport, just a 2.5-hour flight from Miami.
An ideal location to create a "state within a state"... and attract residents.
In the last 10 years, over 500 people have moved there.
Many of the photos you'll see in this thread are renders.
Projects like this involve a good deal of "suspension of disbelief."
The real Próspera today is on the LEFT.
The one in the plans is on the RIGHT.
Zaha Hadid designed a residential complex that's being built there.
Erick Brimen raised and invested $100M by buying land and building the foundations of the city since 2016 🏗️
The personal income tax rate is 5%. For companies, it's 1%.
🧬 Want an example of the kind of business that shows up there? Gene therapy companies. You can’t just open those anywhere 😅
Próspera, in itself, is an AMERICAN company, backed by VCs.
Its lawyers always knew that in this part of the world, things can change quickly. History is easy to rewrite.
The ZEDE law has several constitutional guarantees. Its slogan used to be "50 years of stability."
What happened is that, in 2021, Honduras changed its regime. After 12 years of right-wing rule, Xiomara Castro was elected: the wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup in 2009.
As soon as she took office, Xiomara repealed the ZEDE law.
And she’s basically been trampling on them ever since 😅.
In Próspera, taxes started being levied, and tax exemptions were ignored.
Local businesses' access to the national financial system began to tighten.
Entrepreneurs even reported attempts at intimidation and unusual patrols.
No one really knows the exact legal status of the situation.
But the startup's lawyers believe they have a winning case.
They filed a dispute in a World Bank arbitration court, seeking $11 BILLION in compensation 😳
That's almost HALF of Honduras' GDP.
The country has threatened to withdraw from the organization that oversees this court...
...but the process will continue regardless of that.
There are even U.S. senators interested in the case.
Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Biden asking him to intervene.
The libertarians in Próspera... are having to play the game to survive 😅.
To make the story even juicier for the detractors...
... Próspera also declared #Bitcoin as legal tender. And it has a "coiner education center."
🗞️ Imagine the headlines:
"Private Bitcoin city of U.S. bitcoiners wants to bankrupt the country"
😅
What do you think: will this project make history... or will it die on the beach? 🏖️
Would you want to spend some time living in Próspera? 🇭🇳
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