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Galeano's writing career spanned half a century, but he is
best-known for his seminal 1971 book 'The Open Veins of Latin
America' ('Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina').
Subtitled 'Five centuries of the pillage of a continent', it
remains a classic in anti-capitalist, left-wing circles.
Crackling with indignant anger, the work describes the
colonial-era scramble for Latin America's riches by European
powers, followed in the twentieth century by the region's
economic dominance by Britain and the United States.
A copy of the book was famously gifted by Venezuelan firebrand
leader Hugo Chavez to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009,
sending it to the top of the Amazon bestseller list.
A spokeswoman for publishing house Siglo XXI Editores, which
published his works, said Galeano passed away in Uruguay's
capital, Montevideo.
"His work is a mixture of meticulous detail, political
conviction, poetic flair and good storytelling," wrote his
friend, the Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, in the foreword to
a recent edition.
INTO EXILE
Galeano started out as a journalist in the 1960s, writing 'Open
Veins' at a time when he said his cattle-producing country
"produced more violence than meat or wool."
Following a coup in 1973 and the banning of the book, he fled to
neighboring Argentina. When that country's military dictatorship
began its 'dirty war' against leftists in 1976, he went into
exile again, this time in Spain.
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There he wrote Latin American historical trilogy 'Memories of
Fire', returning to Uruguay as the dictatorship ended in 1985. A
lifelong soccer fan, he penned a history of the game, 'Football
in Sun and Shadow', in the 1990s.
He later moved to distance himself from his most famous work,
and in particular what he described as a "stodgy" writing style,
saying in 2014: "'Open Veins' tried to be a book of political
economy, but I didn't have the necessary training."
The book has also been criticized for painting Latin American
countries as victims, with parts of it seeming dated in light of
the emergence of a middle-class and stable democracies in much
of the region in recent decades.
For a generation of Latin Americans who grew up in a tempestuous
time of idealism and brutal repression, though, it will remain a
touchstone.
(Reporting by Malena Castaldi in Montevideo, Maximilian Heath in
Buenos Aires and Rosalba O'Brien in Santiago; Writing by Rosalba
O'Brien.; Editing by Richard Lough and Nick Zieminski)
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