Eva Golinger
Encyclopedia
Eva Golinger is a Venezuela
n-American attorney and editor of the Correo del Orinoco International
, a web- and print-based newspaper which is financially backed by the Venezuelan government
.
She is the author of several books on Venezuela's relationship with the United States. She is an outspoken supporter of Venezuela's socialist
president Hugo Chávez
; As of May of 2011 she serves as a foreign policy advisor to the Venezuelan government http://www.answercoalition.org/la/events/venezuelas-revolution-in.html Chávez has called her La novia de Venezuela ("The Girlfriend of Venezuela"). Golinger is a writer at Venezuelanalysis.com
, and according to the National Catholic Reporter
in 2004 was "head of the pro-Chávez Venezuela Solidarity Committee in New York". Her website, venezuelafoia.info, aims to shed light on what she calls links between U.S. government agencies and Venezuelan organizations by publishing documents obtained using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
(1994). She initially studied music, before switching to political science and law, and developed an interest in what she says is the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) in regime change around the world. She completed her Juris Doctorate (JD) in international human rights law in 2003 at City University of New York School of Law
. In the interim she had spent nearly five years in Mérida
from the mid-1990s on, discovering her Venezuelan roots.
Her first book, The Chávez Code (2006), was first officially presented in Havana
at a government-sponsored event; its preface was co-authored by Rogelio Polanco, Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela since August 2009. It then arrived in Venezuela. It has been published in six languages, and a film is being made. This book was introduced by the Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel
.
An extensive review of her first book carried out by Veneconomy, a political and economic research publication in Venezuela, claims that Golinger manipulated sources and states that the documents she cites in the text of the book do not correspond to the footnotes in the book: "In none of the cases where she makes a specific citation of an official [U.S. government] document is there a quote affirming what she states." Veneconomy claims that Golinger attributes quotations that do not exist. Veneconomy's review said it found dozens of instances of what they considered sloppy work, manipulation of sources, false and chronologically inaccurate claims, and amateur historiography.
A 2009 book, La Mirada del Imperio sobre el 4F, uses U.S. documents obtained through FOIA requests to examine Washington's views of the February 1992 coup d'état attempt led by Hugo Chávez.
In 2009 Golinger co-authored another book (with Jean-Guy Allard
) called La Agresión Permanente ("The Permanent Aggression"), published by the Venezuelan Ministry of Information. The book looks at the USA's history of "democracy promotion", focusing on United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) and the CIA and links between them and other organisations such as the Inter-American Press Association
and Human Rights Watch
. The book continues the themes Golinger elaborated in Empire's Web (2008).
describes Golinger as "a writer at the pro-Chávez Web site, Venezuelanalysis.com" and says she was asked in 2003 by the Venezuela Information Office
(VIO) to be the member of a "rapid response team to combat news articles and editorials critical of Chávez". According to Golinger, the "VIO's communications were not significant, and ... 'Long before that office came into existence ... I was writing articles about Venezuela and engaging in efforts to educate on Venezuelan current affairs'."
The New York Times described Golinger's website, Venezuelafoia.info as "pro-Chavez" and noted in 2004 that she uncovered " ... documents [that] form part of an offensive by pro-Chávez activists who aim to show that the United States has, at least tacitly, supported the opposition's unconstitutional efforts to remove the president. Golinger ... obtained reams of documents from the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency financed by the United States government, that show that $2.2 million was spent from 2000 to 2003 to train or finance anti-Chávez parties and organizations." According to The New York Times, "The documents do not show that the United States backed the coup, as Mr. Chávez has charged. Instead, the documents show that American officials issued 'repeated warnings that the United States will not support any extraconstitutional moves to oust Chávez.'" The documents also showed however that American officials knew of the coup attempt beforehand, something which they had strenuously denied in the days after the event.
Golinger has stated that she believed Maria Corina Machado
, head of a Venezuelan NGO Sumate
that received a $53,000 grant from the NED was guilty of treason against Venezuela.
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n-American attorney and editor of the Correo del Orinoco International
Correo del Orinoco (2009)
Correo del Orinoco is a Venezuelan government backed progressive newspaper launched in 2009 , named for Simón Bolívar's original Correo del Orinoco . It is associated with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela; Vanessa Davies is the editor.It launched an English-language edition in 2010; Eva...
, a web- and print-based newspaper which is financially backed by the Venezuelan government
Government of Venezuela
|Venezuela is a federal presidential republic governed by a constitution. There are five branches of government: Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Citizen, and Electoral....
.
She is the author of several books on Venezuela's relationship with the United States. She is an outspoken supporter of Venezuela's socialist
Socialism of the 21st century
Socialism of the 21st century is a political term and a slogan coined by Heinz Dieterich in 1996. It was used by Hugo Chávez during a speech at the World Social Forum of 2005 and it has been publicised actively by Dieterich worldwide since 2000, especially in Latin America.-Bolivarian...
president Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
; As of May of 2011 she serves as a foreign policy advisor to the Venezuelan government http://www.answercoalition.org/la/events/venezuelas-revolution-in.html Chávez has called her La novia de Venezuela ("The Girlfriend of Venezuela"). Golinger is a writer at Venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuelanalysis.com: Venezuela News, Views and Analysis is a news website, which describes its aim as being "to provide on-going news about developments in Venezuela, as well as to contextualize this news with in-depth analysis and background information...
, and according to the National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
The National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...
in 2004 was "head of the pro-Chávez Venezuela Solidarity Committee in New York". Her website, venezuelafoia.info, aims to shed light on what she calls links between U.S. government agencies and Venezuelan organizations by publishing documents obtained using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Background
Golinger is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence CollegeSarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
(1994). She initially studied music, before switching to political science and law, and developed an interest in what she says is the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) in regime change around the world. She completed her Juris Doctorate (JD) in international human rights law in 2003 at City University of New York School of Law
City University of New York School of Law
CUNY School of Law is a law school in New York City, founded in 1983.In 1981, CUNY hired Charles Halpern to be its founding Dean. This law school was established as a public interest law school. The curriculum integrates clinical teaching methods with traditional areas of legal study.In Spring of...
. In the interim she had spent nearly five years in Mérida
Mérida, Mérida
Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, Venezuela, is the capital of the municipality of Libertador and the state of Mérida, and is one of the principal cities of the Venezuelan Andes...
from the mid-1990s on, discovering her Venezuelan roots.
Books
Golinger is the author of several books on Venezuela's relationship with the United States, based on research using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to shed light on what she calls links between U.S. government agencies and Venezuelan organizations, particularly in relation to the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt. Her books are published by the Venezuelan government's information ministry and are both celebrated and launched at ministry events that often include the participation of high level Venezuelan government officials.Her first book, The Chávez Code (2006), was first officially presented in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
at a government-sponsored event; its preface was co-authored by Rogelio Polanco, Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela since August 2009. It then arrived in Venezuela. It has been published in six languages, and a film is being made. This book was introduced by the Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel
José Vicente Rangel
José Vicente Rangel Vale is a Venezuelan leftist politician. He ran for President three times in the 1970s and 1980s and later supported Hugo Chávez, successively becoming Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, and Vice President in Chávez's government.-Political activism:His political activism began...
.
An extensive review of her first book carried out by Veneconomy, a political and economic research publication in Venezuela, claims that Golinger manipulated sources and states that the documents she cites in the text of the book do not correspond to the footnotes in the book: "In none of the cases where she makes a specific citation of an official [U.S. government] document is there a quote affirming what she states." Veneconomy claims that Golinger attributes quotations that do not exist. Veneconomy's review said it found dozens of instances of what they considered sloppy work, manipulation of sources, false and chronologically inaccurate claims, and amateur historiography.
A 2009 book, La Mirada del Imperio sobre el 4F, uses U.S. documents obtained through FOIA requests to examine Washington's views of the February 1992 coup d'état attempt led by Hugo Chávez.
In 2009 Golinger co-authored another book (with Jean-Guy Allard
Jean-Guy Allard
Jean-Guy Allard is a Canadian journalist who as editor and reporter worked for Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec from 1971 to 2000. He retired to Cuba, and now who writes for Granma...
) called La Agresión Permanente ("The Permanent Aggression"), published by the Venezuelan Ministry of Information. The book looks at the USA's history of "democracy promotion", focusing on United States Agency for International Development
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...
(USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
(NED) and the CIA and links between them and other organisations such as the Inter-American Press Association
Inter-American Press Association
The Inter American Press Association is a press advocacy group representing media organizations in North America, South America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1943, it represents more than 1,300 newspapers and magazines in the Americas...
and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
. The book continues the themes Golinger elaborated in Empire's Web (2008).
Chavez and Venezuela activism
The Center for Public IntegrityCenter for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy and committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around...
describes Golinger as "a writer at the pro-Chávez Web site, Venezuelanalysis.com" and says she was asked in 2003 by the Venezuela Information Office
Venezuela Information Office
The Venezuela Information Office was a Washington, DC-based lobbying agency with the goal of improving the perception of Venezuela in the United States; its stated mission was "to prevent US intervention in Venezuela"...
(VIO) to be the member of a "rapid response team to combat news articles and editorials critical of Chávez". According to Golinger, the "VIO's communications were not significant, and ... 'Long before that office came into existence ... I was writing articles about Venezuela and engaging in efforts to educate on Venezuelan current affairs'."
The New York Times described Golinger's website, Venezuelafoia.info as "pro-Chavez" and noted in 2004 that she uncovered " ... documents [that] form part of an offensive by pro-Chávez activists who aim to show that the United States has, at least tacitly, supported the opposition's unconstitutional efforts to remove the president. Golinger ... obtained reams of documents from the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency financed by the United States government, that show that $2.2 million was spent from 2000 to 2003 to train or finance anti-Chávez parties and organizations." According to The New York Times, "The documents do not show that the United States backed the coup, as Mr. Chávez has charged. Instead, the documents show that American officials issued 'repeated warnings that the United States will not support any extraconstitutional moves to oust Chávez.'" The documents also showed however that American officials knew of the coup attempt beforehand, something which they had strenuously denied in the days after the event.
Golinger has stated that she believed Maria Corina Machado
María Corina Machado
María Corina Machado Parisca is a founder, former vice president, and former president of the Venezuelan volunteer civil organization Súmate, along with Alejandro Plaz....
, head of a Venezuelan NGO Sumate
Súmate
Súmate is a Venezuelan volunteer civil association founded in 2002 by María Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz. Súmate describes itself as a vote-monitoring group; it has also been described as an election-monitoring group....
that received a $53,000 grant from the NED was guilty of treason against Venezuela.
Publications
- The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela, Pluto PressPluto PressPluto Press is a radical, progressive, independent publisher based in London. Pluto Press specialises in "progressive, critical perspectives in politics and the social sciences", and describes itself as "one of the world’s leading radical publishers". It has published authors such as Noam Chomsky,...
, 2006 - Bush Versus Chávez: Washington's War on Venezuela, Monthly Review Press, 2008
- Bush Vs. Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela, Aakar Books, 2008, La Telaraña Imperial: Enciclopedia de Injerencia y Subversión (Empire's Web: Encyclopedia of Interventionism and Subversion), Caracas: Monte Ávila EditoresMonte Ávila EditoresMonte Ávila Editores is the largest and most important publishing house in Venezuela. Between 1980 and 2000 it published over 300 titles, largely by Venezuelan authors, producing over 1.2m copies....
, 2008 (with Jean-Guy AllardJean-Guy AllardJean-Guy Allard is a Canadian journalist who as editor and reporter worked for Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec from 1971 to 2000. He retired to Cuba, and now who writes for Granma...
), La Agresión Permanente: USAID, NED y CIA, Caracas: Ministerio del Poder Poder Popular para la Comunicación y la Información, 2009 La Mirada del Imperio sobre el 4F: Los Documentos Desclasificados de Washington sobre la rebelión militar del 4 de febrero de 1992, Caracas: IDEA Fondo Editorial, 2009