Cuba, Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution

Presented by the Third Thursday Global Issues Forum, May 15, 7-9 p.m., Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, one block south of the Walker Art Center at Hennepin and Lyndale.

Recent events in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay and other Latin American nations have made world headlines--but are being virtually ignored by our presidential and congressional candidates and the media who cover them. Two excellent speakers will analyze and discuss these important events:

AUGUST NIMTZ, JR., an award-winning Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota where his specialties include Marxism and the Politics of the Transition to Socialism. He's a Cuba expert, a coordinator of the Minnesota Cuba Committee, and a member of the Minnesota-Venezuela Solidarity Committee. In December 2007 he hosted a public forum on Venezuela's controversial constitutional referendum.

BARBARA KENNEDY, a Professor of Spanish at Century Community and Technical College in White Bear Lake, where she has also taught and developed courses in Latin American Culture and Civics, Global Studies, and Women in Global Perspective. She lived in Ecuador for six years, three with the Peace Corps. In December 2007 she led a group of Minnesota and other activists to observe and report on Venezuela's constitutional referendum.

The highly regarded Third Thursday Global Issues Forums are a project of the Minnesota Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions, and are co-sponsored by the Social Concerns Committee of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, United Nations Association of Minnesota, and Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. Also see www.globalsolutionsmn.org.