Chavez turns old book into bestseller at Americas summit

Source: Xinhua | 04-19-2009 11:18

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 18 (Xinhua) -- One of the biggest winners at the ongoing fifth Summit of the Americas turned out to be a decades-old book about Latin America's colonial past.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gives U.S. President Barack Obama a copy of "Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina" by author Eduardo Galiano during a meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad April 18, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano rocketed to bestseller status Saturday night on the online bookstore Amazon.com after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez approached U.S. President Barack Obama and handed him a copy of the book Saturday morning.

Both Chavez and Obama were in Port of Spain to attend the three-day summit between April 17 and 19.

The copy had a Chavez handwritten dedicatory that stated: "Para Obama con afecto" (To Obama with affection).

The publicity about the gift helped propel its English version from relative obscurity to No. 10 on the Amazon.com list of bestsellers on Saturday night.