Rice expert available to comment on the death of Hugo Chavez

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

 Venezuelan politics expert Mark Jones available to comment on the death of Hugo Chavez

 HOUSTON – (March 5, 2013) – Mark Jones, chair of political science at Rice University, a fellow at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and a leading expert on Latin American politics, is available to comment on the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“President Hugo Chavez’s death has profound ramifications for Venezuela’s future as well as that of several of Chavez’s most important allies in the region,” Jones said.

“A new presidential election will be called for later this year. Chavez’s anointed successor, Nicolas Maduro, could very well lose to the Venezuelan opposition’s candidate, Henrique Capriles,” Jones said. “If Capriles is victorious, he is all but certain to end Chavez’s policy of shipping oil to countries like Cuba and Nicaragua on extremely favorable financial terms. In the case of Cuba, the end of Venezuelan petroleum shipments would cripple the country’s already struggling economy.”

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Related materials:

Jones biography: http://www.bakerinstitute.org/personnel/fellows-scholars/mjones.

Founded in 1993, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston ranks among the top 20 university-affiliated think tanks globally and top 30 think tanks in the United States. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows and Rice University scholars. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog.