Brión, Luis (1782–1821)

Luis Brión (b. 1782; d. 27 September 1821), Venezuelan naval commander. The son of a successful Flemish Jewish merchant of Curaçao, Brión became commander of Simón Bolívar's Venezuela squadron in 1813 and his most trusted naval adviser. He played a major role in the assault on Spanish maritime interests in the Caribbean during the Wars of Independence, bringing British arms to Bolívar's support and thwarting the reconquest campaign of General Pablo Morillo. His commercial connections in the Caribbean, especially with Maxwell Hyslop at Jamaica, also helped secure credit for Bolívar's forces. Brión's bitter rivalry with French privateer Louis-Michael Aury undermined the pat-riot naval effort when Aury refused to serve under Brión's command in 1816, but Brión's fleet, operating out of Margarita Island, continued to harass the Spaniards. In 1820 Brión took charge of the transition from a privateer fleet to a more formal Venezuelan navy, but when he became ill in the spring of 1821, his command was transferred to Lino de Clemente.

See alsoBolívar, Simón .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stanley Faye, "Commodore Aury," in Louisiana Historical Quarterly 24, no. 3 (1941): 611-697.

Enrique Ortega Ricaurte, Luis Brión de la Orden de Libertadores: Primer Almirante de la República de Colombia y General en jefe de sus ejércitos 1782–1828 (1953).

Jane Lucas De Grummond, Renato Beluche: Smuggler, Privateer, and Patriot, 1780–1860 (1983).

Jaime Duarte French, Los tres Luises del Caribe: ¿Corsarios o libertadores? (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Díax Ugueto, Manuel. Luis Brion: Almirante de la libertad. Caracas: Fundación Ricardo Zuloaga: Fundación Mendoza: Fundación Vollmer: Libros de El Nacional, 2002.

                                Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.