Roberto Campos | |
|---|---|
 Roberto Campos | |
| Minister of Planning and Economic Coordination | |
| In office 15 April 1964 – 15 March 1967 | |
| President | Castelo Branco |
| Preceded by | Celso Furtado |
| Succeeded by | Hélio Beltrão |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office 1 February 1991 – 1 February 1999 | |
| Constituency | Rio de Janeiro |
| Senator forMato Grosso | |
| In office 1 February 1983 – 1 February 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Mendes Canale |
| Succeeded by | Júlio Campos |
| Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom | |
| In office 31 January 1975 – 16 September 1982 | |
| Nominated by | Ernesto Geisel |
| Preceded by | Sergio Corrêa da Costa |
| Succeeded by | Mário Gibson Barbosa |
| Ambassador of Brazil to the United States | |
| In office 6 October 1961 – 17 January 1964 | |
| Nominated by | Jânio Quadros |
| Preceded by | Walter Moreira Salles |
| Succeeded by | Juracy Magalhães |
| Chair of the Brazilian Development Bank | |
| In office August 1958 – July 1959 | |
| President | Juscelino Kubitschek |
| Preceded by | Lucas Lopes |
| Succeeded by | Lúcio Martins Meira |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Roberto de Oliveira Campos (1917-04-17)17 April 1917 Cuiabá,Mato Grosso, Brazil |
| Died | 9 October 2001(2001-10-09) (aged 84) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Political party | |
| Relatives | Roberto Campos Neto (grandson) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Economist, diplomat and politician |
Roberto de Oliveira Campos (17 April 1917 – 9 October 2001) was a Brazilian economist, writer, diplomat, politician and member of theBrazilian Academy of Letters. He served in a number of capacities, including Brazilian ambassador to the United States and to the United Kingdom, minister of planning for the government ofCastelo Branco, during theBrazilian military dictatorship, and congressman.
Campos was born inCuiabá, in the state ofMato Grosso,Brazil.[1] Initially planning to enter the priesthood, he enrolled in a Catholic seminary inGuaxupé.[2] Later, he received degrees inphilosophy andtheology from a seminary inBelo Horizonte.[2]
In 1939 Campos entered theBrazilian Foreign Service.[1] Three years later, he was sent to the United States,[3] where he took graduate courses in economics atGeorge Washington University andColumbia University.[1][4] During this period, he also represented the Brazilian government in international economic meetings, such as theBretton Woods conference.[2]
Campos leftNew York City for Brazil in 1949.[3] From 1951 to 1953, he acted as an economic advisor in the secondGetúlio Vargas administration,[3] whose hallmarks were the paramountcy of nationalist economic policies.[citation needed] He was one of the supporters of the creation theBNDES (at the time BNDE – National Bank for Economic Development), a public authority whose function was to supply emerging industries with low-interest and long-term credits.[citation needed] After Vargas's suicide, Campos served as economic advisor to his elected successor, presidentJuscelino Kubitschek.[4]
During the 1950s and early 1960s, Campos presented himself as a promoter of "pragmatic, democratic nationalism," as when he tried, as Brazilian ambassador inWashington, to reach an understanding between theJohn F. Kennedy administration and the left-leaningJoão Goulart government.[citation needed] Eventually, disagreements with Goulart's policies led to his resignation in August 1963.[3]
Roberto Campos sided with the military regime installed by the1964 coup, which was greatly backed by Jorge Flores, a business partner of his.[5] The first military president, MarshallCastelo Branco, appointed Campos as his Minister of Planning – and chief economic policy maker, jointly with the Finance MinisterOctavio Gouvea de Bulhões – in which capacity he enacted various pro-business and pro-foreign capital – as well as anti-organized-labour – reforms that aimed to modernize the Brazilian economy in a liberal sense.[citation needed] His sympathies for an inconditional pro-American foreign policy[citation needed] and foreign-capital-friendly economic policies earned him, already during the 1960s, his lifelong sobriquet: "Bob Fields" (ananglicized word-to-word rendering of his actual name).[6]
During the late 1960s and 1970s, he disagreed with the increasing amount of state intervention in the economy included in the process of authoritarian modernization achieved by later military administrations and remained at the sidelines, working mostly as an adviser in private enterprise.[citation needed] In 1975, he was appointed Brazilian ambassador to the United Kingdom, remaining in this office for nearly seven years.[4]
At the demise of the dictatorship, he regained political influence and became a politician in his own right. In 1980, soon after the end of the two-party regime, he joined the newly formed pro-governmentPDS.[3] Two years later, he won the election for an eight-year term assenator for his native state ofMato Grosso.[1] As a member of the electoral college in the1985 presidential election, he voted for the defeated PDS candidate,Paulo Maluf.[6] Starting in 1991, he served asfederal deputy for the State ofRio de Janeiro during two legislatures.[1] In 1998, he was defeated when trying to return to the senate, thus ending his political career.[4]
At the end of his life he tended to portray himself as solitary liberal, fighting against what he called "leftist" (i.e. Big Government) governments and policies, becoming one of the most vocal opponents of socialism in Brazil. His 1994 autobiographyA lanterna na popa revises his personal biography – as well as the recenteconomic history of Brazil – according to this vein.
In 1999, he was elected member of theBrazilian Academy of Letters by a thin margin of four votes.[7]
He died ofheart attack on 9 October 2001 at his apartment inRio de Janeiro.[4] His papers reside at theUniversidade Positivo.
He was married. From his marriage resulted two sons and one daughter.[2]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lucas Lopes | President ofBNDES 1958–1959 | Succeeded by Lúcio Martins Meira |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Planning and Economic Coordination 1964–1967 | Succeeded by Hélio Beltrão |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Sérgio Affonso da Costa | Brazilian Ambassador to theUnited Kingdom 1975–1982 | Succeeded by Mário Gibson Barbosa |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | 7th Academic of the 21st chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters 1999–2001 | Succeeded by |
