Virtual Event: Venezuela and U.S. Policy After Maduro

Following the U.S. strikes in Caracas and subsequent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, there are many questions that remain. What will governance in Venezuela look like in the short- and long-term, and how will that affect Venezuelan citizens? How will these U.S. actions affect foreign policy, particularly in the Western Hemisphere? How will access to Venezuelan oil affect global energy markets and prices? And what will be the long-term ramifications in the global arena to how the United States has moved forward in Venezuela? Join Perry World House for an in-depth, virtual discussion of these topics and more.

Carolina Jiménez Sandoval is the president of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). She holds more 20 years of experience in research and advocacy for human rights in the Americas and throughout the world. As a leader in the field with extensive experience in the region and Washington, she guides WOLA’s team to achieve strategic impact in social justice and human rights.

Prior to WOLA, she served as deputy research director for the Americas with Amnesty International in Mexico City. In her almost seven years there, she led a team of researchers documenting human rights violations and designing advocacy strategies to guarantee respect for human rights. Her work included a wide variety of themes and countries, from addressing grave crimes under international law in Venezuela and Nicaragua to promoting the rights of migrants and refugees in Central America, Mexico, and the United States. Prior to that, she was program officer for the Open Society Foundations’ Latin America Program and International Migration Initiative where she led the creation of CAMMINA (the Central America and Mexico Migration Alliance), a donor collaborative funded by OSF, AVINA and the Ford Foundation to support migrants’ rights organizations in the region.

She has a PhD in international studies from Waseda University, Japan, and did a postdoctoral program in human rights and ethics at the Central University of Venezuela. She holds a master’s degree in international law and Asian studies from Chuo University, Japan, and a master’s of philosophy in international relations from the University of Cambridge, England. She graduated from the Universidad Central de Venezuela with a BA in international relations. She is a frequent contributor in English and Spanish to media outlets and publications across Latin America, the United States, and Europe, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, PBS, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, El País, Deutsche Welle, and various academic journals, among others. She is a national of Venezuela and Mexico.

Robert M. Scher is the former head of international affairs for bp America. In this position, he tracked and analyzed U.S. foreign policy as it affects bp’s businesses around the world.

Scher has close to twenty-five years of experience in senior global affairs and national security roles in the U.S. government, most recently serving as the assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities in the Pentagon from 2014 to 2017. In that role, he directly advised the U.S. Secretary of Defense on a wide range of global defense, security, strategy, and budgeting matters. Prior to becoming assistant secretary, Scher held a series of progressively more senior roles at the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, focused on defense strategy and Asian foreign policy. He also served in the private sector as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton on defense and foreign affairs issues. Scher received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, and a master's of international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Samantha Vinograd leads Brunswick’s U.S. geopolitical practice. She has served under three U.S. administrations and in several key private sector roles.

Most recently, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, Threat Prevention, and Law Enforcement Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she developed, implemented and evaluated policies to identify and mitigate risks to the U.S. Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Samantha led global public policy at Stripe and worked for Goldman Sachs where she focused on building public-private sector partnerships. Samantha began her career in Baghdad under President Bush working for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and she subsequently served on President Obama’s National Security Council as the Director for Iraq, Director for International Economics and Energy and as the Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor. She is a CBS News contributor, a Senior Advisor at the Biden Institute, and a Trustee at Save the Children US.

She is fluent in French and studied advanced Arabic and Hebrew. She received her BA in Asian and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA in security studies from Georgetown University.

Michael C. Horowitz is the director of Perry World House and Richard Perry professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also senior fellow in innovation and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2022 to 2024, Professor Horowitz served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development and emerging capabilities. He is the author of The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics, and the co-author of Why Leaders Fight. He won the Karl Deutsch Award given by the International Studies Association for early career contributions to the fields of international relations and peace research. He has published in a wide array of peer reviewed journals and popular outlets. His research interests include the intersection of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics with global politics, military innovation, the role of leaders in international politics, and geopolitical forecasting methodology. Professor Horowitz worked for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He is a life member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Horowitz received a PhD in Government from Harvard University and a BA in political science from Emory University.

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