Roberto Campos, 84; Economist Was Brazil’s Ambassador to U.S.

Roberto Campos, a leading Brazilian economist and diplomat who had an influential role in his country’s financial policies for decades, has died. He was 84.

Campos died of a heart attack Tuesday in his home in Rio de Janeiro. He had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in February 2000.

In a long career, he participated in many of the world’s most important economic conferences, including the 1944 meeting in Bretton Woods, N.H., which created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

During the 1950s, Campos was a member of the Brazil-United States Commission for Economic Development, and he was founder of and held key positions in the Brazilian National Bank for Economic Development.

Known for his conservative economic views, Campos generally favored little government intervention and few restrictions on foreign capital investment.

An advocate of inter-American economic cooperation, he was one of the early promoters of the Alliance for Progress, a U.S. program started under the Kennedy administration to assist in the social and economic development of Latin America. He was also ambassador to the United States from 1961 to 1964.

Roberto de Oliveira Campos was born in Mato Grosso. He enrolled in the seminary as a teenager, but left to become a teacher. In the early 1920s, he made another career change and joined the foreign service. Sent to the United States for college, he studied economics at Columbia University and at George Washington University.

After serving as an ambassador to the United States, Campos was called back to Brazil to be minister of planning and economic coordination in the Cabinet of leftist President Humberto Casello Branco.

He was ambassador to Britain from 1975 to 1982, then returned to Brazil and started a political career. Campos was a senator from 1983 to 1991 and a federal deputy from 1991 to 1998.

He is survived by his wife, Stella; three children; and several grandchildren.