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Intellectual icon of Latin America's left in the seventies and eighties dies in Montevideo

Tuesday, April 14th 2015 - 10:03 UTC
Full article 48 comments

Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, whose The Open Veins of Latin America became a classic text for the left in the region and propelled the author to fame, died on Monday at age 74. Galeano had been ill with lung cancer for several months. Read full article

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  • Brasileiro

    The book “The Open Veins of Latin America” is must-read book with us South Americans who need to know the ins and outs of North American imperialism and how they corrupt our political class (right).
    The book provokes in us a sense of unity in the fight against injustice and US domination.

    The work and the thought of Eduardo Galeano survive forever while beating a legitimate South American heart!

    Rest in peace!

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 10:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • SebaSvtz

    Nothing but written porn for the hypocritical, mediocre left which has harmed so much this part of the world.

    A classical “it´s somebody else´s fault” diatribe to explain our failure.
    Lies and absurdity.

    The very same Galeano said he had little knowledge both in politics and economy when he wrote that mind-poison.

    I am sorry for all the minds this poor excuse of a book has contaminated.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 10:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Skip

    Galeano said as much recently.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 12:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    2 Its clear that in his later years Galeano was quite embarrassed, specially after Chavez gifted Obama with “The open veins” and it became a best seller overnight in 2009 in Europe and the US

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 12:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    @1. “Time has passed, I've begun to try other things, to bring myself closer to human reality in general and to political economy specifically. 'The Open Veins' tried to be a political economy book, but I simply didn't have the necessary education. I do not regret writing it, but it is a stage that I have since passed.”
    Eduardo Galeano, 2014.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 01:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    2 and 3
    Only ones to claim that Galeano said such an atrocity, are the monoligual halfwits in this forum. With that I include the writers of these articles...

    The rest is merely Echo

    Echo

    Echo

    Echo

    ...

    ;)

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 05:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Jmackiej

    Having read the book a few months ago, it all went horribly wrong in the Opening Chapters where the Spanish and Portuguese destroyed the existing native South american cultures, slaughtered, starved or worked to death the native indians, stole their land and resources. Followed by teh remaining chapters of ruling class Spanish and Portuguese descendant elites who robbed and sold their countries wealth to unscrupulous foreign businessmen.

    Unlike Australia, Canada, India, Falkland Islanders - they had the misfortune to have had the wrong people land on their continent to begin with. It could have been so much better for the native South Americans.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 05:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    You mean the “right” kind of people somehow made life so much better for the native North Americans and Australians?

    Try again.

    Try rephrasing...

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 06:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • gordo1

    I read two of Galeano's books about 40 years' ago and whilst I understood what he was saying I really found nothing to commend them. He seemed to have an enormous chip on his shoulder.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 07:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Some sadness.
    Both Eduardo Galeano and Gunter Grass (Nobel P) died today, and both felt they had cause to apologise about their past and their writings.
    Perhaps these are the reflections of old age that come to all of us with the passage of time.
    Geoff.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 07:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    Galeano recanted at the end, just like 'No Money Pepe' agreed that the murdering bastard Tupas should not have killed anybody, him especially.

    Great when the cretins come to their senses, pity it took so many damaged lives to get them there.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 07:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    Hasta siempre, Eduardo.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 08:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    9-11

    And the rest, is echo.

    Quod erat demonstrandum...

    :)

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 08:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 13 Argieuruguayo

    “I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”

    “But,” say Man, “the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.”

    “Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn't thought of that” and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.“ -- Douglas Adams, from ”A Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy”

    I see the breakdown is progressing, if that is the best you can do.

    Apr 14th, 2015 - 09:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Hahaha Chris!! The only thing to say puff here, is your answer :)

    I was expecting more than a borrowed, paradoxal argument, like... Lets say a source, any source indicating that Galeano said what MP, and by extension you lot, say he did when referring to Las venas abiertas.

    You can't, can you?
    Don't you worry, old man, it isn't the first nor the last time your monolingual brain gets the better of you.

    Go back to your search for proof that god doesn't exist. As an atheist, I find that act rather peculiar. I mean, why would anyone need proof for something that doesn't exist? Try the same tactics on unicorns next. If we are lucky, that will keep you busy all winter...

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 01:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Great column of a Uruguayan writer that sums up this fraudster

    https://casadenaipes.lamula.pe/2015/04/13/galeano-los-vampiros-y-la-reinvencion-de-la-historia-intoxicada/mrkubrick29/

    Because Galeano reinvented the history of Latin America, he wrote at the whim of his ideology, distorted, fantasized, built a myth. A falsehood, a fable and myth, which is just as “attractive” as harmful. Raul Presbish invented Dependency Theory but was Galeano who gave historical context. Prebish justified our poverty as a result of “unequal exchange” between the center and the periphery; Galeano made immense that justification to introduce ourselves to the South Americans punished until prostration from the moment when Columbus set foot in the Bahamas.

    Galeano made us “victims”. Victims of colonization, victims of conquest, victims of the British empire, victims of the United States, victims of capitalism, free trade victims. Nothing more than appealing to man's laziness to find the causes of our own miseries away from each other. Galeano made victims of the Spanish empire. And so we invented the “indigenism” ... ignoring, of course, that we South Americans, are not the original inhabitants of this land, we are not even leftovers the first mestizaje, which are a mixture of 500 years of migration variegated where the blood of the colonizer and the conquered little or nothing remains.

    That is where all the poison, all the lies, all the shit comes from. And you can smell it even here from people like Stevie.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 01:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Everyone_needs_ResveratrolL

    @7

    “Unlike Australia, Canada, India, Falkland Islanders - they had the misfortune to have had the wrong people land on their continent to begin with. It could have been so much better for the native South Americans.”

    Ah, who said Anglos are not totally brainwashed.

    The scary part is that HE believes it! Britain didn't kill anyone! Certainly no natives!

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 02:53 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    If you feel victimized, Cabeza, stop projecting it on others.

    Most of us are saying stop as we speak. Well, yours is more of a squeak...

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Everyone_needs_ResveratrolL

    @16

    “Galeano made us “victims”. Victims of colonization, victims of conquest, victims of the British empire, victims of the United States”

    He didn't make anyone victims. Everyone already WAS!!

    What part of EMPIRE in British EMPIRE do people not get. Empire = conquest, exploitation, deracination, extermination, no democracy. Direct control, no rights. That's an Empire, all empires bar none.

    Argentina is furthermore victim of capitalism, that's an economic system anathema to family values of Argentines. Greed all day, not a nice way to live.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Think

    (15) Stevie....
    But... Unicorns DO exist in South America...

    Un (libro de los) abrazo(s)
    El Think

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Hey, Cabeza, I fear about your so called writer. He is described as an “ultraderechista reconocido, radicado en Buenos Aires.”

    Gustavo Hernandez Baratta...

    Only literature he ever was guilty of was literatura Baratta...

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    19.

    Toby, British investment in Argentina made the country 4th most wealthy country in the world by 1913
    If that is Empirial explotation, please give me some more.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 11:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Everyone_needs_ResveratrolL

    British “investment” made Argentina a one-trick pony without any need to diversify the economy, which is at the root of the inevitable decline all countries go to... which nonetheless could have been delayed if the economy had diversified at the time.

    So of course it was exploitation. What the the Anglo do? Use us for that time, and then at the first chance, dump us. Or you don't know what the British did in the 1940s and 1950s to Argentina?

    They were an evil empire just like all the others. They don't have the decency to apologize to the world for it. They actually whitewash history saying it was a 'great thing'. Sick.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 12:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Toby, you are a prime example of the ignorance, brainwashing and victim hood that this old fucker has left.

    I dont condemn you because, he is the one to blame, not you.

    Toby... What “diversification” was prior to 1880?? What economy existed before 1880?? A couple of Estancias and fort lines that defended against the indian attacks, some wild cattle heards rooming around freely and yerba mate up north. There was nothing else, just a underpopulated, uneducated and poor structure that had nothing to do with Argentina. No connection whatsoever, no telegraph, no railroads, no ports no nothing.

    You just spout, the crap and lies that you have being brainwashed with.

    You need CAPITAL to quickstart the economy, you need a way to connect the country with rail roads and highways and ports, all that came along with British investment.

    And then you bitch because the British abandomed during and after WWII ??? !!! Make your mind up. And of course they would not return if Peron would only nationalize and nationalize foreing companies.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 01:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    There is enough capital here, and with the new world banks, with possibilities for investment at decent terms, there will be important achievements regarding to infrastructure in SA.
    What you are talking about, Cabeza, is to sell the cow and buy the meat.
    And on a whole other, more important matter, you seem to think the aim is to become a population aided only by gadgets in its isolation, a society dependent on a constantly growing consumption, in order to uphold a constantly growing production, which in its turn sets the foundation for what we call wealth...

    For me, merely avoiding that path, must be considered as a win.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 02:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Stevie keep your head in your arse filled with shit. Its stinks less than the communist nonesence and ignorance you spout.

    Argentina didnt even exist before the conservative period of 1880-1916.

    With no capital you have no cow nor meat.

    Argentina doubled its GDP in the first years of 1880s with British investments alone.

    Where or where which bank can loan Narko Kirchnerist Argentina the equivalent of its GDP ???? say 350 Bn dollars which is the real number of the GDP

    The Chinese??? The Brazilians??

    Nahh keep your head stuck in that arsehole. Idiot

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 02:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    You mean they doubled the GDP from 0. With help from British investment... What an achievement, must have costed a lot...

    http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/37625-140719-china-announces-heavy-investments-in-argentina

    23B invested already, 7B more to come in the hydrocarbon sector.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 03:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    23B ???!!!! Stevie that number is completely wrong. The real number is close to 15 Bn and that is in the last 5 years or so and have not being completed. And its peanuts in modern day standards for a country the magnitude and potential of Argentina. China had agreed 10 years ago 400 Bn worth of investment in Argentina and the reactivation of the railroads and modernization of the trains and it never came. And its peanuts compared to the £480 Million pounds prior to 1914 in tadays worth.

    Stevie moron futhermore Argentina needs 200 Bn U$S of invetment in shale deposit Vaca Muerta to restore energy selfsufficiense. 7 Bn up your arse is going to produce more oil

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    When was the last time any country invested 30B in Argentina?

    Not to mention the 11B currency swap deal.

    Add the new world banks on top of that, and the possibility for Argentina to improve its infrastructure, has never looked so bright.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 04:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • gordo1

    @ 23 Everyone_needs_Resveratroll

    “What the the Anglo do? Use us for that time, and then at the first chance, dump us. Or you don't know what the British did in the 1940s and 1950s to Argentina?”

    You seem to have conveniently forgotten that in the late thirties and the forties Britain was combatting the evil of Nazism and its resources were directed in armaments.

    Also, you seem to have conveniently forgotten that in the forties Argentina suffered from Peronism, the greatest blow to democracy ever seen in that country. It still suffers from Peronism - a far worse evil than the British Empire!

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 05:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Cabeza
    According to the national archives of the lot, a pound back in 1900 is the equivalent of 57 puonds today.

    Which would mean, taken into cosideration the numbers are yours, that an investment of 480M would be, in todays numbers, a grand total of 28B pounds.

    But them again, that's their own numbers, I'm quite sure you can provide us with more appropiate numbers from your hat...

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 06:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    The numbers are OK, as long as you remember they are POUNDS not weaker US dollars but Argentina's GDP at the time was about that size in 1880. China is not investing the Argentine GDP anywhere near retard.

    Argentina need in the next 10 years 200 Bn dollars to lift up Vaca Muerta. 70% of its GDP.
    They ain't going to get it.

    Damn what an exploitive past, what a terrible days those poor victims. Those evil capitalist...

    NOT

    http://www.libertadyprogresonline.org/2014/09/25/la-era-relativamente-liberal-argentina/

    Galeano is blowing the Devil's cock in hell, you fool.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 08:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Vaca Muerta is mainly fracking, I'm a happy man if they don't get the cash to get that project going...
    As for your arguments, first you say Argentina basically was non-existant GDP wise, until the BRITs came and doubled that amount.So 0 x 2 = 480M pounds.

    Now, ignorance is not illegal, nor is it your fault in most cases, but how on earth can 30B dollars be peanuts compared to 27B pounds?

    Note also that China has almost invested the same amount in Argentina, as the Brits did according to your own numbers, with inflation and the wheel of time taken into consideration.

    Really, you should lick Chinese boots like you lick British ones...

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 09:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Who cares retard?? Argentina had gone by 70 years of civil war, Paraguayan war, Indian frontier wars and Patagonian conquest. From 1880 British investment and conservative class that governed Argentina “ the 80s Generation” drove Argentina to be a Global superpower. And Argentina by 1914 was more than half of all of Latams GDP!!!!

    The Chinese dont invest nothing relative to the size of the Argentine GDP. Today Argentina's GDP is relatevely insignificant.

    And most of what is considered investments from CHINA are actually LOANS.

    China has only invested 10 Bn dollars or even less its nothing compared to the Argentine economy.
    What is ARGENTINA today but a laughing pot.????

    When in 1914 Bs As was the Paris of Latin America and its streets were crowded with Italian and French imigrants?

    Go and suck Galeanos cock, you faggot.

    Apr 15th, 2015 - 11:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    What has investment compared to GDP to do with anything at all.
    As if an investment in a country with less GDP would somehow have more benefits thanthe same investment in a country with higher GDP.
    Every darn bridge in Uruguay would be Golden Gates, with your logic....

    Your blatant and perfectioned ignorance is sad in its own, but crapping on your own country, on a Uruguayan website, is bloody surreal...

    I've never had that before, having to tell an Argentine that.... You know :)

    Is is because we beat you in last Copa?

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 12:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Investment relative to GDP has everything to do with it because its the only way to standardize a comparison of a century difference.

    Stevie you are as thick as pig shit. This guy is a fraudster a liar and a self admitted ignorant snob.

    Stevie Argentina was the 4th richest country in the world at the height of its capitalist and free market, conservative days. That is a FACT. That alone dispels this old useless fucker and a ball licker like you.

    Gosh you stupidity is breath taking.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 02:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    So you mean any investment in Uruguay is of more value than in Brasil, having in mind the big difference in GDP to Brasil's favour...

    If your “only way” to make the comparison, would be the only way, why do people insist with purchasing power?

    If my stupidity is breathtaking, yours is outright choking you. Why do you feel the need to swear by the way, is it the only way to standardize your frustration?

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 07:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Of course you stupid moron!!!

    Brazil is a far larger economy. So if I invest say 50.000 in Uruguay in buying farm land. There should be 10 investors in Brazil doing the same thing to compensate.

    Stevie. Galeano doesnt know economics, you dont know either, why do you keep on talking about things you dont know about??? zurdito pajeto.-

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 11:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    You mean 50k land in Uruguay has the same value as 500k land in Brasil?

    Hahahaha!!!

    Wanna buy my shoes? They are from San Marino....

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 12:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Ohhhh Did say dollars, pounds, Euros, Yuans ???


    No zurdito pajero, I mean 50000 money units as for an example, sorry I forget you are retarded,

    What a fucking joke you zurdos putitos are. Its genetic.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 12:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    And where did I mention any specific currency?

    Your lack of comprehension, is only bested by your need to make a fool out of yourself....

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 12:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Because your beating about the bush is just a moot point. If land is of lower quality in Brazil, for the same amount of money I can buy more land. But even if so, faggot. Brazil being far larger and far more populated permits far more investments. The only parameter is still Investments/GDP. And that is the point.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 12:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    You want to buy my shoes, I take it...

    Hey, Cabeza, if the land in Uruguay was of lower quality than that in Brasil, you could buy more land there too, despite of the GDP...
    A bridge doesn't cost more or less depending on the country you are in. What varies is the value of the currency invested.

    And the value of the invesment made by the Brits in Argentina, was about 27B dollars transferred to todays value of the very same currency by the very same investors.

    This means you could do as much with the invested money, as you can do with 28B today.

    An impressive investmest, soon only surpassed by the Chinese.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 01:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Stevie, Investments/GDP is the only real parameter. Argentina had 3 million people back then UK 30 million. In 2015 China has over a billion Argentina 41 million.

    In 1914 the trains worked and connected the country. Argentina was the 4th largest economy on the world.

    If the Chinese were to invest 300 Billion which is a more realistic value to level to what the British invested in 1880, you would have a more reliable argument. But Again, you are just trolling.

    China has invested far more genuine projects in South Africa or Australia.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 03:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Now you wish to introduce invested amount in relation to population, which again would mean building a bridge in China, somehow is far more expensive than building the same bridge in Chile.

    With 480M pounds back in 1900, you could buy, build and invest as much as you can with 28B pounds today. The biggest difference is the selection of possible projects, having the technological advancements in mind.

    The conversion is made by the British National Archives.

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 04:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • CabezaDura2

    Are your parents brothers??
    I said Investment/ GDP !!! What language should I explain it in?? Man you are so fucking stupid.

    And China has invested 15Bn Dollars in Argentina so far in ten years. Its absolutely nothing by todays standards.

    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$
    China to get near to what Britain invested in Argentina from 1880 needs to invest 350 Bn US$

    Get it retard ???

    Apr 16th, 2015 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Stevie

    Only thing that is measured in investment/GDP, is your brain activity when busy.

    The investment is obviously humble, and you are truly a gross, domestic product...

    Apr 17th, 2015 - 01:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Philippe

    RIP: a perfect Latin American idiot.

    Philippe

    Apr 21st, 2015 - 07:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0

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