Deep sorrow for the passing of our friend and colleague Pierre Salama

We deeply regret the passing of our dear friend and colleague Pierre Salama, who was an active and participating member of our CLACSO Working Group on emancipatory practices, common goods and decolonial alter-global methodologies, enriching our work with their approaches, lectures, writings, personal relationships and artistic works for the benefit of a better understanding and contribution to solving the problems of Latin America and the Caribbean, with quality of life, emancipatory sense and respect for human rights and nature.

Pierre was a brilliant French economist, Professor Emeritus of the University of Paris XIII, a great connoisseur, scholar and committed to the social, economic, human, cultural, political and environmental problems of Latin America and the Caribbean.

His studies and writings highlighted the problems of inequality, poverty, job insecurity, and the existential vulnerability of millions of Latin Americans and Caribbeans who struggle daily to survive in difficult sociocultural and economic conditions. Pierre observed and analyzed these serious problems against the backdrop of globalization processes that concentrate wealth and the inequitable development models prevalent in Latin America. He also issued early warnings about the danger of the rise of far-right populism in Latin America and the world. His artistic works are also significant: continuous line drawings of human faces, represented in *The Purity of the Line*, published in Costa Rica. His valuable studies earned him well-deserved recognition in various Latin American countries and research centers, including honorary doctorates from the University of Guadalajara and the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), the Julio Cortázar Chair Award, and membership in the Colombian Academy of Economic Sciences.

For our CLACSO Working Group, he was and will continue to be a special person who will forever remain in our historical memory. We remember him for his outstanding, innovative, and always relevant writings and perspectives on the complex and challenging reality of Latin America, its countries, and various regions, always drawing attention to the most pressing problems and issues, which he analyzed with depth and with great human compassion and solidarity.

August 12th, 2024
CLACSO Working Groups
Emancipatory practices, common goods, and decolonial alter-global methodologies

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.