Golinger is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (1994). She initially studied music, before switching to political science and law, and developed an interest in what she says is the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in regime change around the world. She completed her Juris Doctorate (JD) in international human rights law in 2003 at City University of New York School of Law. In the interim she had spent nearly five years in Merida from the mid-1990s on, discovering her Venezuelan roots.

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 to shed light on what she calls 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. [1] [2] [3]

Her first book, The Chávez Code (2006), was first officially presented in Havana, Cuba, at a government-sponsored event and its preface was co-authored by Rogelio Polanco, Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela [4] [5] since August 2009. It then arrived in Venezuela [6]. 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. [7]

An extensive review of her first book carried out by Veneconomy, a political and economic research publication in Venezuela [8], claims that Golinger manipulated sources and states that the documents she cites in the text of the book do not correspond to the footnotes in the book: "In none of the cases where she makes a specific citation of an official [U.S. government] document is their quotation affirming what she states." Veneconomy claims that Golinger attributes quotations that do not exist. Veneconomy's review found dozens of instances of what they considered sloppy work, manipulation of sources, false and chronologically inaccurate claims, and amateur historiography. [9]

A 2009 book, La Mirada del Imperio sobre el 4F, uses U.S. documents obtained through FOIA requests to examine Washington's views of the February 1992 coup d'état attempt led by Hugo Chávez.

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. The book looks at the USA's history of "democracy promotion", focusing on United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the CIA and links between them and other organisations such as the Inter-American Press Association and Human Rights Watch. The book continues the themes Golinger elaborated in Empire's Web (2008).

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'."

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.'" The documents also showed however that American officials knew of the coup attempt beforehand, something which they had strenuously denied in the days after the event.

Golinger has stated that she believed Maria Corina Machado, head of a Venezuelan NGO Sumate that received a $53,000 grant from the NED was guilty of treason against Venezuela.