Chávez gift to Obama shoots book to No. 2 on Amazon.com
By Matthew Clark | Latin America editor 04.20.09
Say what you will about Venezuela’s fiery leftist President Hugo Chávez, he definitely has the Midas Touch … at least with book sales.
Just one day after handing President Obama a copy of Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, the anti-imperialist tome written in 1970 by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano has shot from being ranked 54,295 on Amazon.com’s list of top sellers all the way up to No. 2.
US News and World Report is even calling Mr. Chavez “the next Oprah, at least when it comes to selling books.”
Chávez presented the book – which has inspired generations of Latin American leftists – to Mr. Obama at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend.
In response to the book’s success on Amazon.com, Chávez jokingly proposed a business partnership with Obama.
“So I said, Obama, let’s go into a business. We’ll promote books – I’ll give you one, you give me another,” Chavez said.
This is not the first time a very public Chávez nod has caused book sales to skyrocket, Reuters points out.
Sales of US linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky’s “Hegemony or Survival” soared after Chávez plugged it during a UN speech.
That plug in 2006 shot Mr. Chomsky’s book to Amazon’s top spot and caused sales of the book to jump tenfold at both Borders Group and Barnes & Noble, the New York Times reported back then.
Chávez has never been shy about promoting his favorite books.
As the Monitor reported back in 2005, Chávez launched an initiative to print and distribute 1 million copies of Miguel de Cervantes’s 1605 classic, Don Quixote – perhaps in the hope that people may compare him to the fictional defender of the oppressed.
“We are all going to read ‘Quixote’ to feed ourselves once again with that spirit of a fighter who came to undo injustice and fix the world,” Chávez said at the time.
<< As Clinton calls on Iran to release US journalist, commentators decry ‘farce’ | MainDubbed “Operation Dulcinea” (after Don Quixote’s lady love), copies of the book – an abridged, illustrated, and annotated edition – have been handed out in the public plazas, metro stations, schools, libraries, and shopping malls of Venezuela’s 24 states. A month into the project, about two-thirds of the paperbacks have been handed out. In addition, 70,000 copies are being printed in English to be distributed to Venezuela’s English-speaking Caribbean neighbors, and another 5,000 will be printed in French and sent to Haiti.
Comments
4. zentropy88 | 04.21.09
Samwise, are you suggesting that the US is an imperialist country? I do not believe that the Obama administration condones imperialism (nor does the majority of the population here). Granted, I have not read the book… I am only gathering that this is the topic based on the title. I imagine it’s about the US and other western countries raping and pillaging weaker countries for their natural resources while leaving little to nothing for the people of that country. Sorry to say that I think most people think that’s the old imperialist way of doing things… thought that should have gone when Churchill lost his way with BP in Iran, but it seemed to make a comeback with Thatcher, Reagan and the Bush family. Isn’t it time we evolved a little past that childlike behavior and acted like grown adults? Time to play fair.
5. Nate | 04.21.09
Darn, too bad Chavez didn’t give Obama a copy of the Fairtax Book or The Lost Science of Money. 
6. wesleywhatwhat | 04.21.09
samwise - careful, ur irrational, unfounded hate of all things reasonable is showing in your tantrum about obama, lol
7. Jeremy McGuire | 04.21.09
I’m just glad we have a President who actually reads books and is not afraid of opposing ideas. How can yo make choices unless you are acquainted with all sides and glean from each all the wisdom that is there, for there is no such thing as a 100 percent erroneous philosophy. Some are just more tight than others. As a wise man once said, “I have never known anyone to be corrupted by too much knowledge, but I have known them to be positively polluted with ignorance.”
Right wing ideologues seem to have opted for the latter.
8. phibian mashingaidze | 04.21.09
Samwise, The president of the USA cannot be as cheap as you describe him. He is changing the world, whether you like him or not. Unfortunately many people in the first world are not well informed about different regions of the world and its people. Obama is an opened minded person, who is not dogmatic. I have read all the books by Carl Marx and Lenin but I remain a pragmatic and useful international consultant advising governments on economic reforms. Actually extending a hand to detractors of USA is clear success for Obama. A friend of mine was an economic adviser to Fidel Castro and interestingly he a leading cluster manager in charge of private sector development in Eastern Europe and Russia. Samwise breathe in and repent!
9. Pat | 04.21.09
What the Am. extreme right does not understand is that most South Americans, want to exploit their natural resources themselves, they just want a share of their own pie. Most “ USA Latin American advisers” are either of Puerto Rican, Mexican or Cuban ancestry and they do not understand S. American culture themselves.
S. Am. are neither communist nor hard line capitalists. They believe in mixed economy /a hybrid of socialism, capitalism and cooperatives. South America differs from the “Latino stereotype” of the USA. In S. Am people eat more potatoes, pasta and salads, than beans. In SAm., in addition to blacks, Indians, and Spanish, there are Germans, Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabs, etc. Germans, Irish, Italians and others started emigrated to South America during the 18 and 19 century until the 1950’s.
As a matter of fact, Galeano real last name is Hughes. He uses Galeano, his mother maiden name. He is a mixture of Irish, German, Italian and Spanish blood. South America has the greatest reserves of most natural resources of the world.
10. Julius | 04.22.09
This website confirms that the book has rocketed in popularity.
http://www.shopobot.com/open-veins-of-latin-america-five-centuries-of-the-pillage-paperback
Look how the sales rank was in the ten of thousands and then shoots up to number one once Chavez gave the gift. It just shows you the power of these leaders and the media to promote these types of items with simple mentions or gestures.
11. Moses | 04.22.09
Just because the USA has military superiority does not mean we can not acknowledge different view points. Turn the tables, we (USA) would like to have our point of view even if its different than the next super power (china?).
Remember we will not always rule the western hemisphere.
12. Reymono | 04.25.09
Galeanos book was writen refering to a different world. He made predictions of our world today and almost all have shown wrong. Latinamerica is no longer the victim of imperialism, but Chavez needs that image to justify his political project. In spite the political differences with Chavez, as an editor of a university press I´m glad latinamerican authors are read. What Galeano says is true in the minds of many people. The validity of Galeanos text is only psicological. The debate around his text will, I hope, serve as eye opener and self-esteem popper.
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1. Samwise | 04.20.09
So Obama allows himself to be used as a walking billboard ad for a dictator’s anti-American book. “I think it was, it was a nice gesture to give me a book,” he [Obama] said at a press conference at the conclusion of the three day summit. “I’m a reader.”
Mr. President, it is quite obvious that you are a reader, and your favorite reading material consists of The Communist Manifesto, Rules For Radicals, and now a new book that denigrates your country and your system of government.
Chavez is a thug clown, and Obama is his willing sock puppet. What a disgrace!