Hugo Chavez Gifts Barack Obama with a History Book

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Barack Obama a "poor ignoramous" a few months ago for not understanding the history of Latin America. He advised the President to do a little studying.

Hugo Chavez - Barack Obama

After Obama claimed that Chavez "exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America," Chavez said Obama didn't have a grasp on reality.

He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he’s a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the U.S. influence in the region.

My, what ignorance; the real obstacle to development in Latin America has been the empire that you today preside over," said Chavez, who is a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy.

Today, while the two are attending the Summit of the Americas, Chavez gave Obama some schoolin.' Handing the President a copy of The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, by Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano and written in Spanish, Obama says he took it thinking it was a book written by Chavez. The book was designed to humiliate the America President. It attacks the U.S. and Europe for exploiting the area in some 500 years of colonization, and well, basically, "pillaging" it. Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller have some interesting quotes from the book. Here's just one:

The book also criticizes the U.S. for "spreading and imposing family planning...In Latin America it is more hygienic and effective to kill future guerillas in the womb than in the mountains or the streets.

These photo ops and handshakes are taking on a life of their own.