Alain Labrousse (19 February 1937 – 6 July 2016) was a French
sociologist and journalist who specialized in Latin American politics and the geopolitics of drugs.
Obit
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Biography
He was born in Libourne
Libourne (; ) is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
It is the wine-making capital of northern Gironde and lies near Saint-Émilion and Pomerol.
Geog ...
, Gironde
Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749. . He studied literature in Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, then sociology at the Sorbonne. After completing his doctorate, he taught at the French lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...
in Montevideo for five years (1965–1970), during a period when the political situation in Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
was becoming increasingly restive. Labrousse drew on this experience to write his first work on urban guerrilla warfare, '' Les Tupamaros'' (Seuil, 1971). The book was translated into English and published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
as part of their Pelican Latin American Library series. It was updated in 2009, coinciding with the rise to power of José Mujica
José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano (20May 193513May 2025) was a Uruguayan politician, revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisone ...
, the former guerrilla leader.
Labrousse lived in Latin America for two decades, with a two-year break in Morocco (1969–1971).
Selected publications
He wrote numerous books on Latin America, among them:
* with Alain Hertoghe
Alain Hertoghe (born 1959) is a Belgian journalist, formerly an employee of the French Catholic newspaper '' La Croix''. He was fired in December 2003 after writing a book critical of the coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by French newspape ...
, ''Le Sentier lumineux – Un nouvel intégrisme dans le tiers-monde'', Paris, La Découverte, 1989, 240 p.
*''Le réveil indien en Amérique latine,'' P.-M. Favre, 1985
*''Sur les chemins des Andes, à la rencontre du monde indien'', Paris, L'Harmattan, 1983.
* ''Géopolitique et géostratégie des drogues'', with Michel Koutouzis, Economica, coll. « Poche. Géopolitique », 1996
*''Géopolitique des drogues'', Presses universitaires de France
Presses universitaires de France (PUF; ), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is a French publishing house.
Recent company history
The financial and legal structure of the Presses Universitaires de France was completely restruc ...
, coll. « Que sais-je ?
"Que sais-je?" (QSJ) (; Literally: "What do I know?", ) is an editorial collection published by the Presses universitaires de France (PUF). The aim of the series is to provide the lay reader with an accessible introduction to a field of study wr ...
», 2004 (note de lecture)
*''Dictionnaire géopolitique des drogues. La drogue dans 134 pays. Productions, trafics, conflits, usages'', Éd. De Boeck
* ''L'Expérience chilienne : réformisme ou révolution?'', Paris, 1972, Éditions du Seuil.
* with François Gèze, ''Argentine : révolution et contre-révolutions'', Paris, 1975, Éditions du Seuil.
* ''Tupamaros de l'Uruguay, des armes aux urnes'', Paris, 2009, Éditions du Rocher.
* ''Les Tupamaros. Guérilla urbaine en Uruguay'', Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1971.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labrousse, Alain
French writers
1939 births
2016 deaths