Apr, 22th 2009 21:41
Chavez creates instant bestseller138 views | 0 comments
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SimpleSTORY - The book, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, was ranked 54,295 on the sales charts of bookseller Amazon.com.
Now, it has risen to number two in the chart - just two days after Mr Chavez presented it to Mr Obama at the Summit of the Americas, reports the BBC.
Written by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, the book looks at the impact of foreign intervention in Latin America in the past five centuries.
It covers the continent's conquest by the Spanish nearly 500 years ago right up to the present day.
President Obama looked surprised when Mr Chavez got up from his seat, handed him the book and then shook his hand.
It was a Spanish-language paperback copy inscribed with the message: "For Obama, with affection."
A little later, Mr Obama said: "Well I think it was a nice gesture to give me a book. I'm a reader."
President Chavez told reporters: "This book is a monument in our Latin American history. It allows us to learn history, and we have to build on this history."