Open Veins of Latin America

Galeano writes the final part of Open Veins of Latin America seven years after the publication of the first two parts of the book. In this concluding part, Galeano explains that numerous Latin American countries banned his book, given its critiques of dictatorships that collude with the interests of US and European multinational corporations. He is aware that he has not written “a mute book” (283), and intends to describe how political and economic conditions have worsened since the book’s 1971 publication.

Despite the worsening conditions, he senses the uprising of the Latin American people and the push towards true structural change. Galeano names General Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru as an example of a leader who tried to push for agrarian reform away from foreign capital. Velasco Alvarado’s passing in 1977 was a mournful time for the poor and working-class people of Peru. At the same time, a handful of women and children led a miners’ strike in Bolivia despite General Hugo Banzer’s government’s brutal opposition to strikers. The strike galvanized thousands of students and workers, forcing the government to accept amnesty for prisoners.

Galeano also mourns the passing of Chile’s former President Salvador Allende in 1973, which gave rise to the rule of Augusto Pinochet.