SOVIET BLOC INTEREST IN BRAZIL'S NORTHEAST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79S00427A000500040035-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 26, 2003
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: August 20, 1961
• Content Type: MEMO

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
20 August 1961
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SUBJECT-. SOVIET BLOC INTEREST IN BRAZIL'S NORTHEAST
1. Soviet bloc offers to aid the Brazilian Government
in the development of the Northeast have come from the USSR,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. Bloc
negotiators have indicated specific projects for which their
countries have the ability to provide aid; the broadest aid
offer has come from the USSR. The East Germans have offered
to re-equip textile factories and the Poles have offered help
with the fishing industry, while the Soviet offer is for a
large-scale irrigation and power project. This is in line
with the bloc's approach to underdeveloped areas in other
parts of the world, While the Northeast has received greater
bloc attention in recent months than other areas of the
country, some interest continues to be shown in states out-
side the northeast,
2. The most recent development in Soviet bloc aid to
northeastern Brazil is the arrival about 10 August of two
Hungarian representatives to discuss Budapest's offer of
equipment, technicians, and geologists to drill 2,200 water
wells in the area. A Czech offer of $10,000,000 in industrial
equipment for the State of Para was reported on 11 August.
State Department review
completed
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A Soviet offer of a large-scale power and irrigation project
was reported in late July.
Poland is reported,
however, to have sought earlier to undertake an aid program in
the area but to have been unable to reach an agreement with
Brazil,
3. President Quadros' office on 19 August published
the text of a letter he sent to Soviet President Brezhnev
and Premier Khrushchev in which Quadros is quoted as saying,
"We have received valuable aid from other sources, but not
in proportion to our needs or in proportion to the increase
in our own capacity for work.,." He added, "For Brazil it is
important to intensify trade with the Soviet Union. We have
something to offer and much to receive. The science, the
technique, the resources accumulated in the USSR's giant race
toward progress can stimulate the development of my country
at the moment when Brazil has decided to break the routine
of misery, sickness and ignorance,"
4. An appendix of specific offers is attached.
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APPENDIX
1. SOVIET UNION
Irrigation and power--A Soviet plan for extensive development
of irrigation and hydroelectric power facilities reportedly
was submitted to the Brazilian delegation, headed by Joao
Dantas, which toured Eastern Europe last spring. The Foreign
Ministry announced on 31 July that the USSR had offered Brazil
a $200,000,000 credit on the same terms given Egypt for the
Aswan Damn This could mean long-term Soviet economic involve-
ment in Brazil, since the payments on principal and interest
at 2.5 percent would not commence until after delivery and
would be spread over 12 years after each item reached Brazil.
Various kinds of aid to Brazil if the country wanted it. With
reference to the vast desert regions of the Northeast that he
had seen during the flight from Recife to Brasilia, the USSR
The press in Recife, capital of Pernambuco State, re-
ported that Mikhail P. Georgadze, head of a Soviet good-will
mission recently in Brazil, said that the USSR would give
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144,
could, for example, send specialists to explore the sub-soil,
which ought to contain riches thus far ignored. He added, "In
India there are similar regions in which foreign technicians
have tried to find petroleum for the past 50 years, with Soviet
specialists discovering deposits in the same areas in only
five months."
2, HUNGARY
Water wells--president Quadros ordered the Finance and Foreign
Ministries to give full support to two Hungarian officials
who recently arrived to discuss Budapest?s offer of equipment,
technicians, and geologists to drill water wells in :northeast
Brazil, according to a report of 11 August from the US Embassy
in Rio de Janeiro. The Hungarians are also to study economic
exploitation of magnesite,
3e CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Industry for Para--Havana radio reported on 11 August 1961
that a proposal by the Government of Czechoslovakia to in-
stall industries totalling $10,000,000 in the State of Para
was handed to President Quadros by the governor of that state.
The governor had recently returned from a trip to several
bloc countries. In 1959 Brazil accepted Czech aid for the
construction of a cement factory in the State of Para--a
project since completed.
Equipment for SUDENE--The Brazilian radio reported on 13 May
1961 that President Quadros had asked the minister of industry
and commerce to appoint a committee to study offers by Czecho-
slovakia to furnish hydro- and thermo-electric equipment, farm
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tractors, diesel generators, and equipment for the Northeast
Development Administration--SUDENE,
Shoe factory in Bahia--According to Prague radio on. 19 April
1961, a group of Czech technicians was to leave for Brazil
shortly. During their stay there they will supervise the
assembly of the machines in a plant for the manufacture of
leather footwear in the State of Bahia,,. The machines were
delivered by the Czechoslovak foreign trade corporation Kovo,
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POLAND
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Fishing--Recife radio reported on 5 May 1961 that a Polish
mission was in Recife attempting to find out how Polish in-
dustry could participate in the program of development of the
State of Pernambuco. The Polish delegates had expressed
especial interest in the fishing industry.
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