Hugo Chavez gave Obama a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of a Continent”. It immediately shot up to number 2 on Amazon.

Curious as to how often the U.S. invades (oops, I mean “intervenes”) in  Latin America?  History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America lists over 50.  That’s once every two or three years.  This list is not complete.  Maybe we were fighting Communism?  Nah! As you can see at another List of U.S. Interventions in Latin America, we’ve been doing it since before Communism was invented.

Here is a poem of Galeano’s that I love.  (Apologies for any mistakes in the Spanish.)

Cultura del Miedo

Si haces el amor, tendras SIDA
Si fumas, tendras cancer
Si comes tendras colesterol
Si bebes, tendras accidentes
Si respiras, tendras contaminacion
Si caminas, tendras violencia
Si lees, tendras confusion
Si piensas, tendras anustia
Si sientes, tendras lcura
Si hablas, perderas el empleo

Culture of Fear

If you make love, you’ll get AIDS
If you smoke, you’ll get cancer
If you eat, you’ll get colesterol
If you drink, you’ll get into accidents
If you walk, you’ll get mugged
If you read, you’ll get confused
If you think, you’ll get depressed
If you feel, you’ll go crazy
If you talk, you’ll lose your job