Inside Chavez’s Venezuela
Sharmini Peries, foreign policy advisor to Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, talks about Latin America's most contentious leader -- and thorn in Washington's side -- since Fidel Castro.Background
Sharmini Peries became advisor to President Hugo Chavez after interviewing him and members of the Venezuelan government while she was on assignment for India’s magazine Frontline in 2004.
In addition to her work with Frontline, Peries has worked for Democracy Now and other news organizations. She has also been the director of Justice International, a Toronto-based international organization dedicated to human rights and social justice; executive director of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression; executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, an organization defending the rights of immigrants and refugees in Canada; and executive director of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System.
Peries’ doctoral research work is “Nationalism, War and Conflict: Representations of Women,” in the department of social and political thought at York University in Toronto. She holds a master’s degree in economics (York University in Toronto) and a bachelor of arts degree in economics (University of Prince Edward Island, Canada).
Listen: 
Interview (29.3 MB)
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