Rise and fall of relations between SUDENE and the “Alliance for Progress”

The regional issue of peripheral underdevelopment has in the Brazilian Superintendency for the Development of the Northeast (SUDENE) its first great paradigmatic case. The adoption of its two master plans reflects the economic and political onslaught of this institution. In this context, dialogue between SUDENE and the United States was established via the request for financing. This paper analyses the rapprochement and distancing between SUDENE and the “Alliance for Progress” in order to identify the political negotiations established between the two actors in the 1961-1964 period. First, the process of rapprochement to the Alliance for Progress by SUDENE (1961-1962) is examined, followed by a review of the causes of the decline of those negotiations (1963-1964). The methodology is based on the documentary analysis of the acts of SUDENE’s Deliberative Council and its first and second master plans.