Corina Parisca
Corina Parisca Pérez de Machado is a Venezuelan psychologist and former tennis player. She won the National Tennis Championship in 1959 and represented Venezuela at the 1959 [Pan American Games|Pan American Games] of the same year. She co-founded the Atenea Foundation, focused on care for orphaned and delinquent Caracas street children, with her eldest daughter, María Corina Machado.
Biography
Corina Parisca Pérez de Machado was born in Caracas; her father was Carlos Parisca Mendoza.Parisca began playing tennis at the age of 11 at the Valle Arriba Golf Club in Caracas. She defeated champion Nena Xalabarder to win the club's children's championship, and subsequently participated in the Inter-Club and National Championships at the Altamira Tennis Club, also in Caracas. In 1959 she won the National Championship title and that same year represented Venezuela at the Pan American Games in the United States.
Parisca is a psychologist graduated from the Central University of Venezuela. In 1992, she co founded the Atenea Foundation together with her daughter, María Corina Machado, focused on the reintegration of children at risk of exclusion in the country.
Following the 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections, Parisca was under house arrest and her home was surrounded by officials from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence. Similar to the extraction of those detained in the 2024 siege of [the Argentine Embassy and ambassador's residence in Venezuela|siege of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas], she was safely removed from Venezuela to the United States.