Sofia Peña

Sofia Peña (born May 8th 1987) is a Venezuelan sociologist, politician, educator, artist, and activist. Born in Caracas, she became involved with political activism during the Venezuelan opposition to the Chávez and Maduro governments.

In 2014, Peña moved to London City, where she worked as a researcher in the healthcare industry. She moved to Bilbao, Spain in 2024 and became active in the cultural sector. In 2039, Peña joined the administration of incumbent Venezuelan President Milagros Soto as her chief of staff. From 2040 to 2041, Peña served as Special Advisor to then-United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Luis Carlos Díaz.

After resigning her position along with Díaz in February 2041, Peña returned to Bilbao and became a research fellow at the University of the Basque Country, where she developed an influential body of work on the sociopolitical dynamics of G6. On her 60th birthday in 2047, Peña announced her retirement from public life.

Early life and educationPermalink

Sofia Peña was born Sofia Peña-Orrego Alcántara on May 8th 1987 in Caracas, Venezuela. She is the youngest of two children born to Ignacio Peña-Orrego, an antiquarian, and Isabel Alcántara, an anthropologist and online activist. Her father is of shared Catalan-Peruvian descent and her mother comes from a Spanish family in Venezuela. Peña showed a creative side at an early age, leading her mother to enroll her into art lessons at the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Art Gallery in Caracas.

Peña attended private catholic school for her primary and secondary education, and studied Sociology at the Central University of Venezuela, graduating with honours in 2011. During and after her studies, Peña performed field work with indigenous communities for several independent institutions and government ministries. In 2014, Peña moved to London City and enrolled at the SOAS University, graduating with a Masters in History in 2017.

ActivismPermalink

Peña became involved with political activism at the age of twelve, when she began to accompany her mother to various protests against the Chávez government in Caracas. In April 2002, Peña and her mother were trapped in a shootout at the Llaguno Overpass, which preceded the 2002 coup attempt. With her mother “in disbelief and unable to move,” Peña grabbed her by the hand and quickly led her past the barricades that were being erected by the military.

In 2004, several of Peña’s family members, including her mother and brother, were added to the Tascón List, which subjected them to discrimination and harassment from the government. During the 2014 protests, Peña began passing out flyers in the apartment building where she lived, since Twitter was the only reliable source of information and many people did not have internet access.

When her work drew the attention of others, Peña became an informal organiser in a campaign to verify and disseminate actionable information. Using a pseudonym as cover, Peña started the VZLA Reporte newsletter and created #Volantear tags for different areas so that people could coordinate their efforts locally. When asked about her decision to get involved with the opposition in Venezuela, Peña has said that she “didn’t feel responsible, but motivated.” After the government began to crack down on elements of Peña’s operation, she moved to London City at the urging of her parents.

CareerPermalink

From 2017 to 2019, Peña worked as a home care assistant and coordinator in London City. In March 2019, she began to work as a project manager for various market research companies active in the healthcare industry. In 2024, she moved to Bilbao, Spain to be closer to her parents, who had managed to leave Venezuela and settle in Spain that year. Through her mother’s continued activist work, Peña became involved with local communities, eventually joining Bilbao’s Department of Culture and Education in 2026. She assisted and led several research projects, and was promoted to the department’s director in 2034.

In 2037, Peña joined the United Nations Futures Research Agency (UNFRA), where she contributed to various research and cultural projects related to localised implementations of global health policies.

In June 2038, Peña returned to Venezuela to support Milagros Soto and the Voluntad de Cambio party in Venezuela’s parliamentary elections. Though not affiliated with Soto’s campaign in an official capacity, Peña was responsible for organising seminars and outreach events, coordinating with local advocacy groups, and advising on the specifics of the Voluntad de Cambio party platform, including its elements of liquid democracy. Following Voluntad de Cambio’s electoral victory on December 5th 2038, Peña joined Soto’s administration as her chief of staff in 2039.

United NationsPermalink

In April 2040, Peña was appointed as Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to then-United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Luis Carlos Díaz. This caused some controversy due to Peña’s perceived lack of experience, with political observers attributing the appointment to Díaz’s “hands-on interpretation of the powers and duties of his office.”

During her time at the UN, Peña pushed to redefine implementation of the R2P, eventually broadening it to include “deniable genocide through inaction towards, or acceleration of anthropogenic climate change” as an internationally punishable crime in response to the collapse of Bangladesh.

On February 8th 2041, Peña ended her assignment as Special Advisor when Díaz announced his resignation as UNSG during the emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the international adoption of G6.

Research fellowshipPermalink

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In March 2041, Peña accepted a research fellowship at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, where she has developed a celebrated body of work on the sociopolitical dynamics of G6 and its use of neural colloids. ^[1] [2] Peña’s field work on CMD phobia is considered particularly influential in medical circles.

In April 2041, Peña worked with World News Wire (WNW) on a long-form documentary that explored the “connective tissue” between the CMD pandemic and G6, including a segment on Peña’s influential “trickle-down panic” theories on the causes and progression of the pandemic. ^[3] When the documentary was released, Peña was met with criticism for having called CMD phobia “a lie.” She later clarified that WNW had edited her words out of context, and that she “did not mean to dismiss individual cases of CMD phobia, only that its prevalence is exaggerated for political gain.”

In 2042, Peña collaborated with Efua Amankwah-Crouse on a research study about the impact of G6’s data aggregation on credit and reputation scores. As part of the study, Peña conducted several surveys of Venezuelan expatriates, finding that their scores were being negatively weighted due to Zhupao’s mass data collection also encompassing the Tascón List and other politically biased records.

In 2043, Peña organised a series of European conferences for the Open G6 Initiative alongside Atakan Selvi. Peña has credited Selvi with “teaching [her] a thing or two about infosec.”

Personal lifePermalink

Peña has one older brother, Diego, an engineer living in Spain. She is in a mutually committed relationship with Jonathan Welke, a German archaeologist and writer whom she had met in London City in 2018.

Peña has focused on several artistic pursuits, having developed her style across different visual arts, including prints, illustrations, paintings, embroidery, and digital art. She also organised workshops on sustainable art practices and collaborated with other artists, including Audrey Marin, Sai Miller, Omera Rodríguez, and Jamie Temple.

ReferencesPermalink