Roberto Campos

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Brazilian politician

title: "Roberto Campos" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1917-births", "2001-deaths", "20th-century-roman-catholics", "21st-century-roman-catholics", "people-from-cuiabá", "brazilian-economists", "brazilian-roman-catholic-writers", "columbia-graduate-school-of-arts-and-sciences-alumni", "conservatism-in-brazil", "ministers-of-finance-of-brazil", "george-washington-university-alumni", "government-ministers-of-brazil", "members-of-the-federal-senate-(brazil)", "members-of-the-chamber-of-deputies-(brazil)-from-rio-de-janeiro-(state)", "ambassadors-of-brazil-to-the-united-states", "ambassadors-of-brazil-to-the-united-kingdom", "academic-staff-of-the-federal-university-of-rio-de-janeiro"] description: "Brazilian politician" topic_path: "economics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Campos" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Brazilian politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

FieldValue
nameRoberto Campos
imageRoberto Campos.jpg
captionRoberto Campos
officeMinister of Planning and Economic Coordination
term_start15 April 1964
term_end15 March 1967
presidentCastelo Branco
predecessorCelso Furtado
successorHélio Beltrão
office1Member of the Chamber of Deputies
term_start11 February 1991
term_end11 February 1999
constituency1Rio de Janeiro
office2Senator for Mato Grosso
term_start21 February 1983
term_end21 February 1991
predecessor2Mendes Canale
successor2Júlio Campos
office3Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom
term_start331 January 1975
term_end316 September 1982
nominator3Ernesto Geisel
predecessor3Sergio Corrêa da Costa
successor3Mário Gibson Barbosa
office4Ambassador of Brazil to the United States
term_start46 October 1961
term_end417 January 1964
nominator4Jânio Quadros
predecessor4Walter Moreira Salles
successor4Juracy Magalhães
office5Chair of the Brazilian Development Bank
term_start5August 1958
term_end5July 1959
president5Juscelino Kubitschek
predecessor5Lucas Lopes
successor5Lúcio Martins Meira
birth_nameRoberto de Oliveira Campos
birth_date
birth_placeCuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
death_date
death_placeRio de Janeiro, Brazil
party{{Plainlist
alma_mater{{Plainlist
relativesRoberto Campos Neto (grandson)
occupationEconomist, diplomat and politician
::

| name = Roberto Campos | image = Roberto Campos.jpg | caption = Roberto Campos | office = Minister of Planning and Economic Coordination | term_start = 15 April 1964 | term_end = 15 March 1967 | president = Castelo Branco | predecessor = Celso Furtado | successor = Hélio Beltrão | office1 = Member of the Chamber of Deputies | term_start1 = 1 February 1991 | term_end1 = 1 February 1999 | constituency1 = Rio de Janeiro | office2 = Senator for Mato Grosso | term_start2 = 1 February 1983 | term_end2 = 1 February 1991 | predecessor2 = Mendes Canale | successor2 = Júlio Campos | office3 = Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom | term_start3 = 31 January 1975 | term_end3 = 16 September 1982 | nominator3 = Ernesto Geisel | predecessor3 = Sergio Corrêa da Costa | successor3 = Mário Gibson Barbosa | office4 = Ambassador of Brazil to the United States | term_start4 = 6 October 1961 | term_end4 = 17 January 1964 | nominator4 = Jânio Quadros | predecessor4 = Walter Moreira Salles | successor4 = Juracy Magalhães | office5 = Chair of the Brazilian Development Bank | term_start5 = August 1958 | term_end5 = July 1959 | president5 = Juscelino Kubitschek | predecessor5 = Lucas Lopes | successor5 = Lúcio Martins Meira | birth_name = Roberto de Oliveira Campos | birth_date = | birth_place = Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil | death_date = | death_place = Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | party = {{Plainlist|

Biography

Early life

Campos was born in Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Initially planning to enter the priesthood, he enrolled in a Catholic seminary in Guaxupé. Later, he received degrees in philosophy and theology from a seminary in Belo Horizonte.

In 1939 Campos entered the Brazilian Foreign Service. Three years later, he was sent to the United States, where he took graduate courses in economics at George Washington University and Columbia University. During this period, he also represented the Brazilian government in international economic meetings, such as the Bretton Woods conference.

Career

Campos left New York City for Brazil in 1949. From 1951 to 1953, he acted as an economic advisor in the second Getúlio Vargas administration, whose hallmarks were the paramountcy of nationalist economic policies. He was one of the supporters of the creation the BNDES (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. After Vargas's suicide, Campos served as economic advisor to his elected successor, president Juscelino Kubitschek.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Campos presented himself as a promoter of "pragmatic, democratic nationalism," as when he tried, as Brazilian ambassador in Washington, to reach an understanding between the John F. Kennedy administration and the left-leaning João Goulart government. Eventually, disagreements with Goulart's policies led to his resignation in August 1963.

Roberto Campos sided with the military regime installed by the 1964 coup, which was greatly backed by Jorge Flores, a business partner of his. The first military president, Marshall Castelo Branco, appointed Campos as his Minister of Planning – and chief economic policy maker, jointly with the Finance Minister Octavio 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. His sympathies for an inconditional pro-American foreign policy and foreign-capital-friendly economic policies earned him, already during the 1960s, his lifelong sobriquet: "Bob Fields" (an anglicized word-to-word rendering of his actual name).

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. In 1975, he was appointed Brazilian ambassador to the United Kingdom, remaining in this office for nearly seven years.

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-government PDS. Two years later, he won the election for an eight-year term as senator for his native state of Mato Grosso. As a member of the electoral college in the 1985 presidential election, he voted for the defeated PDS candidate, Paulo Maluf. Starting in 1991, he served as federal deputy for the State of Rio de Janeiro during two legislatures. In 1998, he was defeated when trying to return to the senate, thus ending his political career.

Later life and death

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 autobiography A lanterna na popa revises his personal biography – as well as the recent economic history of Brazil – according to this vein.

In 1999, he was elected member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters by a thin margin of four votes.

He died of heart attack on 9 October 2001 at his apartment in Rio de Janeiro. His papers reside at the Universidade Positivo.

He was married. From his marriage resulted two sons and one daughter.

Works

  • (1963) Economia, planejamento e nacionalismo
  • (1988) Guia para os perplexos
  • (1994) A lanterna na popa
  • (1996) Antologia do bom senso
  • (1998) Na virada do milênio

References

References

  1. "Roberto Campos: Biografia". Academia Brasileira de Letras.
  2. Dalyell, Tam. (17 October 2001). "Roberto Campos". [[The Independent]].
  3. Romero, Simon. (3 August 2000). "Jorge Flores, 88; Influenced a Coup in Brazil". The New York Times.
  4. (2 January 2002). "Os Brasileiros do Ano – Roberto Campos". Isto É.
  5. "Roberto Campos". CPDOC – Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil.
  6. (25 September 1999). "Roberto Campos chega até a imortalidade sem unanimidade".
  7. Rohter, Larry. (12 October 2001). "Roberto Campos, 84, Apostle For the Free Market in Brazil". The New York Times.

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