Eduardo Galeano

OPEN VEINS
OF
LATIN AMERICA

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also by EDUARDO GALEANO
Days and Nights of Love and War
Memory of Fire:
Volume I, Genesis
Volume II, Faces and Masks
Volume III, Century of the Wind
The Book of Embraces

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Eduardo Galeano

OPEN VEINS
of

LATIN AMERICA
FIVE CENTURIES OF THE PILLAGE 0F A CONTINENT
Translated by Cedric Belfrage

25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
FOREWARD by IsabelAllende

LATIN AMERICA BUREAU
London

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Copyright © 1973,1997 by Monthly Review Press
All Rights Reserved
Originally published as Las venas abiertas de America Latina
by Siglo XXI Editores, Mexico, copyright © 1971 by Siglo XXI Editores
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publishing Data
Galeano, Eduardo H., 1940[Venas abiertas de America Latina, English]
Open veins of Latin America: five centuries or the pillage of a
continent / Eduardo Galeano ; translated by Cedric Belfrage. — 25th
anniversary ed. / foreword by Isabel Allende.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-85345-991-6 (pbk.:alk.paper).— ISBN 0-85345-990-8 (cloth)
1. Latin America— Economic conditions. 1. Title.
HC125.G25313 1997
330.98— dc21

97-44750
CIP

Monthly Review Press122 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
Manufactured in the United States of America

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“We have maintained a silence
closely resembling stupidity”.
--From the Revolutionary Proclamation
of the Junta Tuitiva, La Paz, July 16, 1809

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Contents
FOREWORD BY ISABEL ALLENDE ..........................................................IX
FROM IN DEFENSE OF THE WORD........................................................XIV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT… … ..........................................................................X
INTRODUCTION: 120 MILLION CHILDRENIN
THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE .....................................................… ...........1
PART I: MANKIND'S POVERTY AS A CONSEQUENCE
OF THE WEALTH OF THE LAND
1. LUST FOR GOLD, LUST FOR SILVER … … … … … … … … … … … … … 22. KING SUGAR AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL MONARCHS … … … ..59
3. THE INVISIBLE SOURCES OF POWER … … … … … … ..… .… … … … .134
PART II: DEVELOPMENT IS A VOYAGE WITH MORE
SHIPWRECKS THAN NAVIGATORS
4. TALES OF PREMATURE DEATH … … … … … … … … … … … .… … … .173
5. THE CONTEMPORARY STRUCTURE OF PLUNDER… … ...… … … ..205
PART III: SEVEN YEARS AFTER ...........................… … … …...................263
REFERENCES … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ...… … … … … … … 287

INDEX… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .307

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Foreword
Isabel Allende
Many years ago, when I was young and still believed that the world could be
shaped according to our best intentions and hopes, someone gave me a book
with a yellow cover that I devoured in two days with such emotion that I hadto
read it again a couple more times to absorb all its meaning: Open Veins of
Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano.
In the early 1970s, Chile was a small island in the tempestuous sea in
which history had plunged Latin America, the continent that appears on the
map in the form of an ailing heart. We were in the midst of the Socialist
government of Salvador Allende, the first Marxist ever tobecome president in
a democratic election, a man who had a dream of equality and liberty and the
passion to make that dream come true. That book with the yellow covers,
however, proved that there were no safe islands in our region, we all shared
500 years of exploitation and colonization, we were all linked by a common
fate, we all belonged to the same race of the oppressed. If I had been ableto
read between the lines, I could have concluded that Salvador Allende's
government was doomed from the beginning. It was the time of the Cold War,
and the United States would not allow a leftist experiment to succeed in what
Henry Kissinger called "its backyard." The Cuban Revolution was enough; no
other socialist project would be tolerated, even if it was the result of a
democratic...