Eva Golinger

Personal life

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

Education and works

In 1994, Golinger graduated from Sarah Lawrence College studying music 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. 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". In 1998, Golinger then returned to New York with the band's guitarist as her husband and completed her Juris Doctorate (JD) in international human rights law in 2003 at City University of New York School of Law. 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.

Chávez and Venezuela activism

Following the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Golinger grew concerned about the United States' knowledge that a coup was possible and gave the information to pro-Chávez organizations with the research taking much of her time. She was divorced from her husband as she became more involved with pro-Chávez work. 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. Golinger traveled to Venezuela to show Chávez her work and became a naturalized Venezuelan citizen shortly after. 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".

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

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.

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." 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." 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". 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'." She frequently appears on RT (TV network), and she edits the English-language edition of Correo del Orinoco.

"Golinger Law"

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.

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. The NGOs needed grants from foreign organizations to perform in Venezuela, with the Golinger Law stopping such funding which "devastated civil society". 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". 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.

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.

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 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. 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". 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.

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.

Publications