[The Red Cross, Pan-Americanism and health in the inter-war period]

The Red Cross, an international organization originally founded in Europe, promoted in different Latin American countries the formation of national societies under the humanitarian and neutral principles in relation to the treatment of prisoners in times of armed conflicts. After the First World War and under the influence of the United States, the League of the Red Cross Societies was fostered to design and apply sanitary and social actions in times of peace. Based on that boost, different Pan-American Congresses were held in the twenties and thirties in Buenos Aires, Washington and Rio de Janeiro, which had an agenda that coincided with the principles of this international organization and, at the same time, allowed the elites and the state and private organisms of different fields to unify in pursuit of intervening in different social sectors.