Below is a selection of commentary and analysis from Green School faculty and affiliated experts, offering informed perspectives on the evolving situation in Venezuela. Drawing on deep regional expertise and ongoing research, these contributions provide context, historical grounding, and critical insight into current developments shaping the country and its broader hemispheric implications.
Eduardo A. Gamarra is a tenured full professor of political science in the department of politics and international relations at Florida International University. He has been at FIU since 1986 where he also directed the Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC) from 1994 to 2007. As director of LACC, Gamarra was involved in research and public policy issues, academic exchanges, fund raising, and other multiple activities in most countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. In February 2016 he was appointed founding director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Brian Fonseca is Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and an adjunct professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University’s (FIU) Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. He is the founding Executive Director of Cybersecurity@FIU, FIU's university-wide interdisciplinary emerging preeminent program. Brian also serves as a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow and International Security Fellow at the D.C.-based think tank New America. His analysis has been featured in local, national, and international media and he serves as the on-air political analyst for South Florida’s WSVN-Fox News. Brian has testified before the U.S. Congress in 2019 and 2021.
Frank O. Mora, Ph.D., is Senior Research Scientist at the Jack D. Gordon Institute of Public Policy. He is also a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University. Dr. Mora is a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. From 2013 to 2020, Dr. Mora served as director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU Prior to arriving at FIU, he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere from 2009–13. He has held several teaching positions, including professor of national security strategy and Latin American studies at the National War College, National Defense University (2004–09), and associate professor and chair in the Department of International Studies, Rhodes College (2000–04).
Sebastián A. Arcos, M.A., is interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. Born in Havana, Cuba, he joined in 1987 the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH), the first independent Cuban human rights organization, and was part of the CCPDH team that met with the Special Group from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that visited the island in 1988. For three consecutive years (1995, 1996, 1997), Mr. Arcos was part of the Freedom House delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. He advised the U.S. Department of State on issues concerning human rights in Cuba between 1998 and 2000.
Edward Glab is the Co-Director of the Global Energy Security Forum at FIU. He joined the Business School at FIU as Director of the Knight-Ridder Center in 2004 after retiring from ExxonMobil, where for over 25 years he held a variety of positions in public affairs. He has conducted business and traveled in 76 countries around the world. He has published a number of articles, edited one book and ran a nation-wide project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the area of bilingual-bicultural education. He has been working on alternative energy for the past three years.
