Award-winning Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano and leading leftwing intellectual has died, El Pais reported.

He was 74.

Galeano was best known for his 1971 anti-imperialist work, “Open Veins of Latin America,” which details Latin America’s exploitation at the hands of foreign powers, beginning with Spanish colonization five centuries ago and continuing to the present with the United States.

The book was banned for years by military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Galeano himself was arrested and exiled after a military coup lead by Juan Maria Bordaberry took over Uruguay in 1973.

“Open Veins” received renewed attention in 2009, when Venezuela’s leftwing former President Hugo Chávez gave a copy to President Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas and urged him to read it. Within hours of the event, the book soared to number 11 on Amazon.com’s best sellers list.

The book has been widely praised and has been translated into at least 20 languages.In 2009, the Guardian called Galeano “one of the most well-known and celebrated writers in Latin America.” More.

See: The Huffington Post

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