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<h1><font size=4><b>Chávez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to
Obama</b></font></h1><font size=3>Sales surge for book about history of
Latin America's exploitation after exchange at summit of Americas<br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/19/obama-chavez-book-gift-latin-america" eudora="autourl">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/19/obama-chavez-book-gift-latin-america<br>
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</a>
<img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/4/19/1240151222269/Chavez-gives-a-book-to-Ob-001.jpg" width=460 height=276 alt="Chavez gives a book to Obama during the Summit of the Americas">
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Hugo Chavez gives Barack Obama a copy of Las Venas Abiertas de America
Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America) by author Eduardo Galeano during
a meeting at the Summit of the Americas Photograph: Ho/REUTERS<br><br>
A 36-year-old historical tract attacking the imperialist exploitation of
Latin America has become an improbable overnight bestseller after the
Venezuelan president
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/hugo-chavez">Hugo Chávez</a>
abruptly presented a copy to
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama">Barack
Obama</a>.<br><br>
During a session of the summit of the Americas in Trinidad at the
weekend, Chávez strode up to Obama, patted him on the shoulder and, with
a friendly handshake, gave him a paperback copy of Eduardo Galeano's 1973
work, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a
Continent.<br><br>
As footage of the encounter appeared on news bulletins, the book rocketed
up the US paperback sales chart of the online bookseller Amazon, soaring
from number 54,295 to sixth place within 24 hours.<br><br>
A classic work in left-wing circles, Galeano's book analyses five
centuries of unequal relations with Europe and the US. It contends that
Latin America has been abused as industrialised nations plundered its
natural resources, ranging from gold and silver to cocoa and
cotton.<br><br>
Obama accepted the book in good humour, telling reporters: "I
thought it was one of Chávez's books. I was going to give him one of
mine."<br><br>
The US president has made it clear that he wants a friendlier
relationship than his predecessor with Chávez, who once described George
Bush as the "devil" and who frequently railed against the US
for providing flawed global leadership.<br><br>
After meeting Obama, Chávez suggested on Saturday that
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/venezuela">Venezuela</a> was
ready to send an ambassador to Washington, ending a diplomatic impasse
which began in September. The summit was also notable for further signs
of a thaw in US-Cuban relations.<br><br>
It is not the first time that Chávez has influenced the readers of the
world. Three years ago he publicly praised a Noam Chomsky tome, Hegemony
or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, at the United Nations.
The book surged to the top of Amazon's bestseller list.<br><br>
Galeano's book could provide food for thought in the White House. A
highly controversial work, it was banned during periods of military
leadership in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chile">Chile</a>,
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/argentina">Argentina</a> and
Uruguay. In a famous passage, it argues: "Our defeat was always
implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our
poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others."<br><br>
A recent edition contains an introduction by the novelist Isabel Allende,
who writes that the book was one of a handful of items she took with her
when she fled Chile after a military coup in 1973 along with a bag of
dirt from her garden, some family pictures and clothes.<br><br>
Advisers to Obama suggested, however, that a practical problem may
interfere with the president's enjoyment of the book. When asked whether
Obama was likely to read it, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said:
"I think it's in Spanish, so that might be a tad on the difficult
side."<br><br>
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