Eva Golinger

Eve Winifred Golinger
Born (1973-02-19) February 19, 1973
Langley Field, Virginia, United States
Alma mater Sarah Lawrence College, City University of New York School of Law
Spouse(s) Gustavo Moncada (divorced)

Eva Golinger (born Eve Winifred Golinger; February 19, 1973) is an American-born[1] attorney and naturalized Venezuelan citizen who edits the Correo del Orinoco International, a web- and print-based newspaper which is financed by the Venezuelan government.[2][3] Golinger is also a member of the Venezuelanalysis.com team.[4][5][6] In a 2011 profile in The New York Times she was described as "one of the most prominent fixtures of Venezuela’s expanding state propaganda complex", and her newspaper as "Venezuela's equivalent of the Cuban newspaper Granma".[1] "I'm a soldier for this revolution," she told The New York Times.

Golinger is the author of several books on Venezuela's relationship with the United States. She is an outspoken supporter of the former socialist president of Venezuela, the late Hugo Chávez.[7] As of May 2011 she serves as a foreign policy advisor to the Venezuelan government.[8] Chávez has called her La novia de Venezuela ("The Girlfriend of Venezuela").[9] According to the National Catholic Reporter in 2004 Golinger was "head of the pro-Chávez Venezuela Solidarity Committee in New York".[10] 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).[11]

Golinger is a weekly host for a television show on RT News, a television channel financed by the government of Russia[1] and a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society.[12]

Personal life

Golinger was born in Langley Airforce Base, Virginia on 19 February 1973 to Ronald Golinger, a US Air Force psychiatrist, and Elizabeth Golinger (née Calderon), an attorney of Venezuelan and Cuban descent.[1][13][14] At a young age, Golinger was introduced to progressive causes, with her mother Elizabeth bringing her to marches for women's rights.[14]

Education and works

In 1994, Golinger graduated from Sarah Lawrence College studying music[15][16] and then moved to Mérida to learn more of her great-grandfather that was killed under the rule of Juan Vicente Gomez and to explore her Venezuelan roots.[14][17] While residing in Mérida, Golinger experienced a struggling Venezuela, with Hugo Chávez still in jail after he committed the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts and students in her city protesting against government austerity, though she also taught English and sang in a band, with Golinger describing Venezuela as "an adventure" and that she "fell in love with the country".[14] In 1998, Golinger then returned to New York with the band's guitarist as her husband[14] and completed her Juris Doctorate (JD) in international human rights law in 2003 at City University of New York School of Law.[15] Golinger then began to develop an interest in what she says is the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in regime change around the world.[16]

Chávez and Venezuela activism

I’m a soldier of this revolution. I’d do whatever asked for me in this country.

Eva Golinger[18]

Following the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Golinger grew concerned about the United States' knowledge of knowing a coup was possible and gave the information to pro-Chávez organizations with the research taking much of her time.[14] She then had a divorce with her husband as she became more involved with pro-Chávez works.[1] In early 2004 going into the 2004 Venezuela recall elections, Golinger found what she said was evidence that the United States was funding opposition groups.[14] Golinger traveled to Venezuela to show Chávez her work and became a naturalized Venezuelan citizen shortly after.[1][14] She then began writing publications about how the United States was supposedly against Chávez since they wanted oil and since he was "an ideological challenger".[14]

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."[11] 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.'"[11] However, the documents also showed that American officials knew a coup attempt was brewing.[11]

Golinger was then very close to the Chávez Presidency, to the extent that she has even accompanied diplomatic envoys with the late Chávez to Iran, Libya, and Syria. Golinger traveled extensively with President Chávez on foreign trips, including a seven-country tour in 2010. She described Belarus's Aleksandr Lukashenko as “really nice”, and his government as "not a dictatorship". She dined with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and gave him a copy of her book describing him as "gentle" at their meeting. "Chávez presented me as his defender to Ahmadinejad", she told the New York Times.[1]

The New York Times reported that Golinger has "emerged as one of the most prominent fixtures of Venezuela’s expanding state propaganda complex...Reviled by the president’s critics, she appears on state television whenever tension ratchets up between Washington and Caracas, as it did recently in a spat over ambassadors, to explain the motives of the 'empire', the term used [in Venezuela] for the United States."[1] While discussing and acknowledging that there was corruption in the Venezuelan government, she denied investigating the issue saying that "Powerful people are involved. It would be dangerous. I look away and focus on all the positive things happening."[14] In Comandante: Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, Golinger is depicted as "someone who applauded Chávez's early stories, the ones about inclusion and social justice of his first years of presidency, and who continued clapping even as his stories turned dark and bizarre".[14] The Center for Public Integrity 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'."[5]

"Golinger Law"

Finally! I'm delighted. This should have been done a long time ago. The infiltration is continuous, and this gives us a tool to stop it.

Eva Golinger[14]

In 2010, Golinger addressed Chávez along with many other high level government officials inside of the Palacio Federal Legislativo, stating that her research show Globovisión along with multiple radio stations being allegedly part of a Pentagon smear campaign against Chávez and "a possible prelude to invasion". She asked the National Assembly to pass a law that would block foreign funding of non-governmental organizations along with political parties. In December 2010, a law dubbed as the "Golinger Law" passed the National Assembly.[14]

The law "was a pretext to bankrupt human rights watchdogs, prison welfare groups and other thorns in the government's side", with most operations being lightly funded organizations.[14] The NGOs needed grants from foreign organizations to perform in Venezuela, with the Golinger Law stopping such funding which "devastated civil society".[14] The law also threatened the expulsion of human rights groups if they "offend the institutions of state, top officials or attack the exercise of sovereignty".[19] The American Interest described Golinger as "a fervent advocate for Hugo Chavez and his 'Bolivarian revolution'" and that Golinger's "specialty is denouncing human rights and pro-democracy groups as puppets of U.S. imperialism" noting the effects of the Golinger Law.[18]

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 on what she describes as 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.[20][21][22]

The Chávez Code

Her first book, The Chávez Code (2006), was presented in Havana at a government-sponsored event; its preface was co-authored by Rogelio Polanco, Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela[23][24] since August 2009. It then arrived in Venezuela. It has been published in six languages, and a film is being made.[16] This book was introduced by the Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.[20] In a review by Choice, the review recommended the book but cautioned readers since it was "not written by a scholar" and described the book as "almost painfully one-sided and full of knee-jerk liberal outrage" noting that it was first published in Cuba while also recognizing that it "lays bare yet another counterproductive attempt to intervene where many believe the US has no moral or legal right to do so".[25] In a review by Veneconomy, the review stated that they found dozens of instances of what they considered sloppy work, manipulation of sources, false and chronologically inaccurate claims, and amateur historiography.[26]

La Agresión Permanente

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.[15][27]

Publications

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Romero, Simon (4 February 2011). "In Venezuela, an American Has the President’s Ear". Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Carroll, Rory (7 March 2010). "Why being a satirist is no joke in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela". Guardian online. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Chavez in driver's seat as he silences his critics". The New Zealand Herald (via LexisNexis). 10 March 2010.
    * (Spanish) "AN aprueba crédito para aumentar tiraje del Correo del Orinoco". Correo del Orinoco. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "Venezuela Analysis". Venezuelanalysis. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  5. 1 2 Bogardus, Keven (22 September 2004). Venezuela Head Polishes Image With Oil Dollars: President Hugo Chavez takes his case to America's streets. Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  6. ↑ About venezuelanalysis.com. Venezuelanalysis.com. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  7. ↑ Romero, Simon, (26 October 2009). "Michael Moore Irks Supporters of Chávez". New York Times
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Golinger, Eva (10 January 2010). Eva Golinger Describes Curacao as the Third Frontier of the United States. Salem-News.com. Retrieved 22 February 2010
  10. ↑ Jones, Bart (2 April 2004). "U.S. funds aid Chavez opposition: National Endowment for Democracy at center of dispute in Venezuela". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Forero, Juan (3 December 2004). "Documents Show C.I.A. Knew of a Coup Plot in Venezuela". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  12. ↑ "International Organization for a Participatory Society: Consultative Committee". International Organization for a Participatory Society. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  13. ↑ International Organization for a Participatory Society. "Eva Golinger Profile on the International Organization for a Participatory Society".
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rory, Carroll, (2014). Comandante : Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Penguin Books: New York. pp. 196–199. ISBN 0143124889.
  15. 1 2 3 (Spanish) Allard, Jean-Guy and Eva Golinger (2009), La Agresión Permanente: USAID, NED y CIA (PDF), Caracas: Ministerio del Poder Poder Popular para la Comunicación y la Información, p5
  16. 1 2 3 4 Golinger, Eva (18 November 2008). My new book is out! The Empire's web: encyclopedia of interventionism and subversion. Postcards from the Revolution. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  17. ↑ "Eva Golinger: "Escribir me rescata de la soledad"".
  18. 1 2 Berger, Peter (16 February 2011). "Revolutionaries with American Passports". The American Interest. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  19. ↑ Corrales, Javier (April 2015). "The Authoritarian Resurgence". Journal of Democracy 26 (2): 37–51.
  20. 1 2
  21. ↑
  22. ↑
  23. ↑
  24. ↑ "Cuba - Contra la guerra y el terrorismo mediático. Noticias, debate, opinion". Archivo.cubadebate.cu. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  25. ↑ Duff, E. A. (March 2007). "The Chávez code: cracking US intervention in Venezuela" 44 (7): 1239–1240.
  26. ↑ "Articulos" (pdf). Veneconomy.com. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  27. ↑ (Spanish) Presentado libro "La agresión permanente" de Eva Golinger y Jean-Guy Allard en Feria del Libro de Venezuela. Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN), 21 November 2009. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  28. ↑ Dinneen, Mark (2009). "Bush Versus Chávez: Washington's War on Venezuela - by Golinger, Eva". Bulletin of Latin American Research 28 (2): 287–288. doi:10.1111/j.1470-9856.2008.0298_3.x.
  29. ↑ Browse by Authors. "Bush Vs. Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela". aakarbooks.com. Retrieved 2012-10-29.

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