This image made available by Hortencia Espetia, shows John Virtue in Miami, Fla., May 30, 2015. Virtue, a crusader for free press and the former director of the Florida International University International Media Center, died of cancer on Friday, June 3, 2016, at a Miami Beach Hospital in Miami Beach, Fla., university officials said, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. He was 81. (Hortencia Espetia via AP) (The Associated Press)
MIAMI – John Virtue, a Canadian-born foreign correspondent and long-time journalism teacher throughout Latin America under a Florida International University program, has died. He was 81.
University officials confirmed that he died of bladder cancer at a Miami Beach hospital last Friday.
Virtue was known to friends as Jack. His career as Latin American correspondent at United Press International took off during a one-month stint in Havana in 1964 when he covered a press conference by Cuban President Fidel Castro. He later managed UPI bureaus in Sao Paolo and Mexico City, and covered wars in Central America and the Guatemala earthquake of 1976.
He spent 25 years as director of Florida International's International Media Center. Under a program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, he held workshops throughout Latin America.
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