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Venezuela experts

Venezuela experts

April 30, 2019 at 11:24am


FIU experts are available to help analyze the ongoing political turmoil in Venezuela.

Members of the FIU Media Relations team are available to assist in contacting experts:

  • Amy Ellis, communications manager, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs: 305-348-5360, ellis@fiu.edu
  • Dianne Fernandez, broadcast media specialist: 305-608-4870, dfernand37@fiu.edu
  • Maydel Santana-Bravo, assistant vice president: 305-348-1555, santanam@fiu.edu
  • Madeline Baró, director: 305-310-9665, mbaro@fiu.edu

Political Science/International Relations

Brian Fonseca
With nearly 20 years’ experience in military affairs, Brian Fonseca served as a defense intelligence analyst at United States Southern Command. He is the co-author of a report on Venezuelan Military Culture that was presented to U.S. SOUTHCOM in May 2016. His work focuses on general security trends and he has published on transnational organized crime, institutional crises in Latin America (prisons, police and militaries), political instability and governance in the Americas. He is director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at FIU’s Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs.

Office: 305-348-7420
Cell: 305-218-6323
Email: fonsecab@fiu.edu

Links to relevant articles:
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2017/0622/Venezuela-s-Maduro-confronts-perils-of-his-reliance-on-the-military

Eduardo Gamarra
Political science professor Eduardo Gamarra has done research on the regional dynamics of Latin America, including Cuba’s role. As an expert on Bolivia and the Andean region, he has followed closely the alliances formed by the Castro brothers, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Venezuelan leaders. Gamarra has also studied drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the effects of American policies in the regional dynamics. He has testified in front of the U.S. Congress several times and is the author of more than half a dozen books and more than 40 academic articles on Latin America. He is available for Spanish language interviews.

Office: 305-348-1718
Cell: 786-253-4898
Email: Eduardo.Gamarra@fiu.edu

Frank Mora 
Frank Mora served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere. Mora has spent nearly 30 years as an academic and government official focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. He worked as a consultant to the Library of Congress, U.S. Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the National Democratic Institute, U.S. State Department, the Organization of American States and U.S. Southern Command. He is available for interviews regarding political economy of Venezuela, social aspects of the elections, as well as military issues. He is director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center. He is available for Spanish language interviews.

Office: 305-348-2894
Email: moraf@fiu.edu

Jose Miguel Cruz
Jose Miguel Cruz is an expert in the area of criminal violence, gangs, police, democratization and public opinion in Latin America. He was the director of the University Institute of Public Opinion at the University of Central America in San Salvador from 1994 to 2006, and has worked as a consultant for organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. Cruz is the director of research at the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center and a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations.

Office: 305-348-2556
Email: jose.cruz6@fiu.edu

Economics

Jorge Salazar-Carrillo
Economics professor Jorge Salazar-Carrillo has conducted research and published extensively on Latin America’s labor markets, particularly Venezuela’s oil sector, including Oil and Development of Venezuela during the 20th Century (2004) and The Economic Development of Venezuela and the Oil Sector: 1910-1990 (1994.) Salazar is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a consultant for both the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB.)

Office: 305-348-3283
EmailJorge.Salazar-Carrillo@fiu.edu

Law

Manuel A. Gómez
Manuel A. Gómez is an expert on institutional and legal reform in Latin America. His research focuses on dispute resolution, governance and legal and institutional reform in Latin America and has earned awards such as a 2007 prize from the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). He earned his law degree from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela) and has been a faculty member at the Universidad Central de Venezuela Law School in Caracas. He has served as legal expert in domestic and transnational litigation and international arbitration proceedings in the U.S. and Latin America. Gómez is Associate Dean of International and Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law.

Office: 305-348-1158
Email: magomez@fiu.edu