Operation Pan America is more than a mere program; it is an entire policy’: Brazil and the beginnings of South-South co-operation, 1958-61?

• In Event: Whose Modernization Theory? Imperial, Transnational, and National Perspectives on "Development" in Cold War Latin America

Abstract

In 1958, Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek proposed Operation Pan America, an economic development programme for Latin America. This came at a time when Latin America as a region faced social and political challenges, and Latin American politicians and academics re-evaluated social and economic problems in novel frameworks of decolonisation and structuralist dependency theories. This paper argues that Operation Pan America marked an instance of South-South co-operation both within Latin America and the inter-American system. More importantly, it tries to uncover the theoretical and political framework of Operation Pan America, highlighting its unique Latin American and Brazilian ideas of progress and social justice, which form part of fundamental debates on development to this day.

Author

• Stella P Krepp, University of Berne