Foreign correspondent, longtime journalism teacher dies
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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.
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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.