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Eduardo Galeano, leading voice of Latin American left, dies aged
74
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<p>Best known for his 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America,
the Uruguayan writer and journalist was one of the
region’s noted anti-capitalist voices </p>
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href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/ashifa-kassam">Ashifa
Kassam</a></span></p>
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Monday 13 April 2015 <span class="content__dateline-time">10.25 EDT</span>
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<p>The Uruguayan author and journalist Eduardo Galeano, one of
Latin America’s leading anti-capitalist voices, has died of
cancer at the age of 74 in Montevideo.<br>
</p>
<p>His death on Monday was confirmed by the weekly publication
Brecha, where he was a contributor.</p>
<p>Galeano was best known for his 1971 book Open Veins of Latin
America, which rocketed to the top of US bestseller lists after
the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez presented a copy to President
Barack Obama in 2009.</p>
<p>Subtitled “Five centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” the
book argues that Latin America has been consistently
impoverished in order to feed the prosperity of Europe and the
US. </p>
<p>In his chronicle of centuries of economic exploitation, Galeano
wrote: “The human murder by poverty in Latin America is secret.
Every year, without making a sound, three Hiroshima bombs
explode over communities that have become accustomed to
suffering with clenched teeth.”</p>
<p>The book, which established Galeano as one of the region’s most
prominent writers, became a rallying cry among leftist circles,
and was banned during periods of military leadership in Chile,
Argentina and <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/uruguay"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" class=" u-underline">Uruguay</a>.
A recent edition included an introduction by novelist Isabel
Allende, who once said the book was one of the few items she
brought along when she fled Chile after the military coup in
1973. <br>
</p>
<p>However, Galeano himself later admitted to mixed feelings about
the book. “[It] was trying to be a work of political economics,
but I just didn’t have the right training. I don’t regret
writing it, but I’ve moved beyond that stage.”</p>
<p>When asked by reporters about Chávez’s gift to Obama, Galeano
noted that the late Venezuelan president had presented his US
counterpart with a Spanish edition of the book. “He gave it to
Obama with the best intentions in the world, but he gave it to
Obama in a language that he doesn’t know. So it was a generous
gesture, but a bit cruel,” he said.</p>
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<h1 class="rich-link__title"><a class="rich-link__link">Eduardo
Galeano: 'My great fear is that we are all suffering
from amnesia'</a></h1>
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<p>During a career that spanned half a century, Galeano wrote
dozens of works of fiction and non-fiction, with several of them
being translated into as many as 20 languages. <br>
</p>
<p>Galeano also won acclaim for his book on another of his
passions, football. His 1995 celebration of the Beautiful Game,
Football in Sun and Shadow, led the Guardian’s Richard Williams
to laud him as “the Pelé of football writing”. </p>
<p>In 2013, speaking to the Guardian about his latest book
Children of the Days, Galeano detailed a world where power and
wealth were becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a
few, weaving in examples from the 15th century to the present
day. “History never really says goodbye,” he said at the time.
“History said, see you later.” </p>
<p>It was a stance that permeated his writing, he told reporters,
describing himself as a “writer obsessed with remembering, with
remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin
America, intimate land condemned to amnesia”.</p>
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