Award-winning Journalist to Discuss ‘Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan Revolution’ at
Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus on March 27

- Author, Newsday reporter and former foreign correspondent,
Bart Jones has first-hand experience with the complex politics of Latin America -

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Bart Jones, an award-winning Newsday reporter and the author of a new biography about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will speak at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus on March 27. The event is free and open to the public.

While a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press in Venezuela, where Jones lived for eight years, he was an eyewitness to the rise of Chavez, the Venezuelan leader who famously dismissed U.S. President George Bush as “the devil” at the United Nations in 2006. Himself the target of increasingly sharp criticism from the Bush administration, Chavez is considered by some to be an inspiration to an emerging generation of leftist Latin American leaders.

In his extraordinary book, “Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution” (Random House, 2007), Jones delivers a first-hand account of Chavez, complete with personal interviews. The biography traces Chavez’s humble beginnings and later career as a military officer to his position today at the helm of one of the region’s most important oil-producing nations.

The discussion, “Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan Revolution,” will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, in room LLC 122 at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, located in downtown Brooklyn at Flatbush and DeKalb avenues. Subway riders may take the B/M/Q/R trains to DeKalb Avenue, or the 2/3/4/5 trains to Nevins Street.

This special event is sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. For more information, please contact the Office of Public Relations at (718) 488-1015.

Posted: March 13, 2008

Media contact: (718) 488-1015