The Controversy between the United States of America and Brazil on Soluble Coffee. An Example of (another) Blemish on the Alliance for Progress?

Initiated in the year 1961, by president John F. Kennedy, the aid programme called the Alliance for Progress was one of the most crucial attempts of providing economic support to Latin America in recent history. Planned for ten years, the programme was intended to generate more than 10 billions USD of material and technological aid for the states of the South American continent. Its aim was to promote the economic growth and political reforms in the era of the greatest tensions between the democratic West and the communist East. As a result of the programme, factories, powerplants, roads and ports were to be built. Th e Latin American states were to be industrialized, leading to an increase in the general standard of living and a reduction in poverty. Th e political context of the United States’ programme is now very clear; the aid for Latin America was planned to prevent the Soviet penetration of the continent. Th at threat became particularly obvious for the American government aft er the Cuban revolution1.