Javier Valenzuela was born in Granada in December 1954. He graduated in Economics (University of Valencia) and works as a journalist and writer. He currently works on the Editorial-Opinion pages of El País and is a frequent commentator on TVE, CNN +, RNE, as well as other television and radio networks. He is the author of the Crónica Negra blog.

Javier Valenzuela was a Staff Correspondent for El País in Lebanon (1986-1988), Morocco (1988-1990), France (1990-1993) and the United States (1996-2001).

As a Special Correspondent, he covered news events in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Bosnia, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Senegal, South Africa, Cuba and China, among other countries.

Between 1993 and 1995 he was Deputy Editor of the Madrid newsroom of El País.

Javier Valenzuela has interviewed many political leaders, including Nelson Mandela, George W. Bush, Yasir Arafat, François Mitterrand, Hassan II, Queen Noor of Jordan, Hosni Mubarak, Dalai Lama, Felipe González and José María Aznar.

He has written six books, four of them about the Arab and Muslim world.

El Partido de Dios (El País-Aguilar, 1989) is an account of his experiences as a war correspondent during the conflicts in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Palestine.

He described contemporary Morocco in La Última Frontera (Temas de Hoy, 1996), co-written with journalist Alberto Masegosa.

In España en el punto de mira (Temas de Hoy, 2002) he analysed the impact of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in Spain and the relations with the Arab world and Muslim immigrants.

Between spring 2004 and spring 2006 Javier Valenzuela was General Director in the Spanish Prime Minister's Office and Spokesperson for the Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. His fourth book, Viajando con ZP (Debate, 2007) is an account of this experience.

His fifth book, De Tánger al Nilo (Libros de la Catarata, 2011) is an anthology of articles about North African countries.

Usted puede ser tertuliano (You can be a pundit), published by Península in May 2011, is a funny history of democratic Spain as seen on TV.

Among other awards, he has received the Civil Merit Medal of the Kingdom of Spain in 2006.