Nationality Venezuelan Venezuela Name Edgar Otalvora Education University of the Andes | Spouse Olga Hernaiz Arnal Role Journalist | |
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Born 6 September 1959 (age 64)
Tovar, Merida, Venezuela ( 1959-09-06 ) Occupation Columnist, writer, diplomatic, policy analyst, journalist. Alma mater University of the Andes (Venezuela) | ||
Edgar C. Otálvora (born Edgar Omar Contreras Otálvora; September 6, 1959 Tovar, Mérida State, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan intellectual, journalist, and politician who has held government and diplomatic positions. He is an expert in international politics and economics, and has distinguished himself as an analyst of Latin American topics, with a focus on military, diplomatic, and political issues. He has been a columnist in Venezuelans and Americans newspapers, in addition to directing the newspaper El Nuevo Pais in Caracas from 2006 to 2010. He is a professor at the Central University of Venezuela. He was a close collaborator of former Venezuelan president Ramón J. Velásquez. He has cultivated the biographical genre, being the first to write biographies of the 19th century Venezuelan presidents Raimundo Andueza Palacio and Juan Pablo Rojas Paul, as well as the Colombian president Virgilio Barco Vargas. Columnist in Diario Las Américas of Miami.
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Public career
He obtained a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of the Andes, Venezuela in 1982 and in 2003 was awarded a master's degree in History of the Americas. He has taught at the School of International Studies and the graduate History of the Americas program at the Central University of Venezuela. In 1990, he was named Executive Secretary of the Presidential Committee for Colombian-Venezuelan Border Issues (COPAF). In 1993 he began the role of General Director of the Ministry of the Secretariat of the Presidency, alongside Ramón J. Velásquez, who would be declared president by the National Congress after a case was opened against then-president Carlos Andrés Pérez. From 1994 to 1999 he was Chief of the Political Departments of the Venezuelan embassies in Bogotá and Brasilia, as well as Consul General in Belém do Pará, Brazil. He has been a consultant and advisor for Hewlett-Packard NCA Latin America, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Journalism career
His journalism career began in 1980 as a columnist for the Diario Frontera in Mérida. He was part of the writing team of the Revista AZUL of the University of the Andes . His opinion columns were first published in 1982 in the newspaper El Nacional in Caracas and, soon after, in the newspaper El Universal as a critic in the Cultural Pages directed by Sofía Imber. In the mid-1990s, he directed the magazine Venezuela en Colombia, edited in Bogotá. Specializing in topics in Latin American politics, he wrote the column Mirando el Vecindario (Looking Around the Neighborhood) in the newspaper El Mundo from 2004 to 2006. Upon taking the role of director of the newspaper El Nuevo País, he began production of Informe Otálvora, appearing in numerous online publications in Latin America. Editor of the news web portal Noticias Clic since 2011. Columnist in Diario Las Américas of Miami since March 2014.