As a Midas king of controversy, everything that falls into the hands of Chavism is the subject of bitter discussions. It happened with the Rómulo Gallegos award. Winning meant for an author to enroll in the Olympus of Latin American literature. Now, the Venezuelan government is trying to revive it and many writers see it kidnapped to protect a dictatorship.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, Roberto Bolaño or Elena Poniatowska won the award that bears the name of the most relevant writer in Venezuela, an award often marked by the same policy that the author of “Doña Bárbara” was passionate about and in a country where historically, bookstores have not had many local authors.
