Abstract Abstract: To return to the history of Brazil’s participation in South-American economic regionalism has gradually become of paramount need as the issue of regional integration is at the top of the country’s foreign policy agenda. This article aims to contribute with a study of this participation, by examining the failed attempt to revive the ABC Pact in the Brazilian political arena in the 1950s. Based on many documentary sources, our goal is to analyse the internal and external conditions that ended the Vargas Administration’s engagement in the Peronist proposal to build an economic bloc among Argentina, Brazil and Chile through a customs union. Herein, we present the reasons that led to the adoption of a realistic and pragmatic position by the Brazilian government regarding the ABC project, which were far removed from any possibility of getting involved in the project or even from not frustrating early expectations.

A década de 1940 representou o auge e o declínio do paradigma das "relações especiais" Brasil - Estados Unidos, predominante por quase meio século na política exterior brasileira. Após a experiência bem sucedida de colaboração durante a segunda guerra mundial, o Brasil enfrentou um período de frustração e desapontamento nas suas relações com o governo de Washington. Emergindo como potência hegemônica, os sucessivos governos norte-americanos constituíram interesses e objetivos globais na nova ordem internacional, pouco restando para o atendimento das demandas dos países latino-americanos. A IV Reunião de Consulta dos Chanceleres Americanos, realizada em Washington, entre março e abril de 1951, explicitou não apenas o dissídio de objetivos e interesses entre os Estados Unidos e os países latino-americanos no pós-guerra, mas também o surgimento de uma nova perspectiva de relacionamento dentro do continente, pautada em negociações realistas e pragmáticas, sobretudo por parte do Brasil.

The 1940s represented the peak and decline of the paradigm of the "special relationship" Brazil - United States, predominant for almost half a century in the Brazilian foreign policy. After the successful experience of collaboration during the Second World War, Brazil faced a period of frustration and disappointment in their relations with the government in Washington. Emerging as a hegemonic power, successive Americans governments have global interests and objectives in the new international order, leaving little to meet the demands of Latin American countries. The Fourth Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers American held in Washington, between March and April 1951, explicited not only the goals and interests of disagreement between the U.S. and Latin American countries in the post-war, but also the emergence of a new perspective on relations within the continent, namely, from that time based on realistic and pragmatic negotiations, this orientation led by Brazil during the meeting.