Vanessa Davies (born 1969)
is a Venezuelan journalist.
Early life and education
Davies was born in
El Tigre
El Tigre () is a city of Venezuela located in the state Anzoátegui. It is the capital of Simón Rodríguez Municipality and it is located south in Anzoategui state, equidistant from the Orinoco River and the Caribbean Sea in the Guanipa Mesa at ...
,
Anzoátegui state
)
, anthem = '' Himno del Estado Anzoátegui''
, image_map = Anzoategui in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_a ...
, and studied social communication at the
Central University of Venezuela
The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...
(UCV).
Career
As a reporter for ''
El Nacional'', Davies published reports about abuses by security and military deployed by
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
, who initially denied the allegations. Davies was subsequently subpoenaed for questioning by the DISIP, which was criticized by Foreign Minister
José Vicente Rangel
José Vicente Rangel Vale (10 July 1929 – 18 December 2020) was a Venezuelan politician and journalist. He ran for president three times in the 1970s and 1980s and later supported Hugo Chávez. He served under Chávez as Minister of Foreign A ...
, and followed by an admission by the Chávez government that security forces had killed more than sixty people in December 1999.
Davies wrote an open letter calling for an investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office.
Chávez invited Davies to accompany him to question the families she had interviewed, and Chávez then promised to improve human rights in Venezuela.
During her career at ''El Nacional'', she also published two articles about "
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
and ''
transformista'' life" in Venezuela. In 2006, the ''El Nacional'' publishing house published her book for teenagers about
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
, titled ''VIH/Sida, Biografía de una pandemia'' (HIV/AIDS, Biography of a Pandemic).
Davies was the host of the investigative journalism program, ''Contragolpe'', on Venezuelan television channel, VTV, until 10 March 2014.
From 2009 to January 2016, Davies worked as the editor of the Venezuelan newspaper, ''
Correo del Orinoco
''Correo del Orinoco '' (the ''Orinoco Post'') was a Venezuelan newspaper created by Simón Bolívar. As such, it is the oldest sovereign newspaper on the Latin American continent and South America. The weekly paper was published from 1818 to 18 ...
''.
Political activities
In 2008 and 2009, she was a member of the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since ...
and served as a member of the national executive of the party as well as coordinator of media and communication.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Vanessa
Living people
Venezuelan women journalists
21st-century Venezuelan women writers
1969 births