Made in Brazil

"I can, without hesitation, affirm that the US does not want to amputate
a piece of our geography in the country's schools.
All these rumors are a conscious act on the part of people
linked to right-wing sectors."

Paulo R. de Almeida

Recently I became aware of the existence of a new wave of Internet rumors about American maps showing a divided Brazil, maps supposedly used in schools in the United States. On October 9, the "Discussão de História do Brasil" [Discussion of history of Brazil] mailing list—which apparently discloses each and every piece of news from its subscribers without questioning either the contents or the basis of the supposed "information"—gave wider readership to what is no more than the grossest disinformation. The mailing list, nevertheless, insisted in treating the "news" as if it were credible.

To those who were not following the earlier wave of rumors (which circulated between May and June of this year), I would like to say immediately that such apparently alarming "news" has no basis.

I can, without hesitation, affirm that the United States does not want to amputate a piece of our geography in the country's schools and that the supposed maps simply do not exist. All these rumors are merely "national," "made in Brazil" disinformation, a conscious act on the part of persons and groups not yet fully identified but who are linked to right-wing sectors that specialize in transmitting news of supposed attacks against our sovereignty in a manner that is not merely paranoid, but also irresponsible.

These groups, apparently acting out of bad faith, have found support in other sincere or ideologically "anti-imperialist" sectors that always appreciate hearing stories about supposed American threats against Brazil's territorial integrity or sovereignty over its Amazon region. Many other persons, with no political motivation, sincerely believe that these maps exist and that they are consciously being divulged as part of a broader, long-term strategy to internationalize the Amazon Rain Forest and amputate a piece of Brazil.

Since the story was unintentionally circulated for the first time by the electronic bulletin Ciência Hoje [Science Today], I reproduce below the formal denial issued by Rubens Antonio Barbosa, the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States, which was published in the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência [Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science] electronic bulletin Ciência Hoje on June 8 of this year.

In summary, these rumors are completely unfounded; moreover, they are not being spread in the United States, but in the electronic bulletins of sectors nostalgic for the "Brazil as a Great Power" military era (the unidentified authors use the slogan "Brasil, Ame-o ou Deixe-o" [Brazil: Love It or Leave It]), sectors dedicated to propagating false news about Amazon maps supposedly being reproduced in United States schoolbooks to initiate (or prepare, according to the paranoid) a future dismemberment of the Brazilian Amazon.

These allegations have no foundation, and these maps do not exist. They are merely an example of irresponsible rumormongering that was involuntarily disseminated by the always-open channels of electronic mailing lists. I want to clarify the fact that the website that divulged the false "news" about the Amazon maps no longer displays material about the maps but continues divulging similar notes about the "threats" that still weigh upon the region, among them that of a "Yanomani Socialist Republic," presided over by a United States citizen.

Finally, I would like to ask the readers to reflect upon the ethical problem posed by divulging over the Internet each and every allegation heard from unidentified sources without at least verifying the contents or the veracity of such "information."

I would ask all those who receive "news" like this to endeavor to adopt a less alarmist attitude: do not disseminate baseless news, endeavor to clear up the rumors, and try to apply a little rationality to an inconsistent matter that has already mobilized many people for a very long time for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Paulo R. de Almeida
Minister-Counselor of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC - USA 20008
Ph (202) 238-2740 Fax: 238-2827
Web page: <http://pralmeida.tripod.com> http://pralmeida.tripod.com
E-mails: <mailto:pralmeida@brasilemb.org> pralmeida@brasilemb.org
palmeida@unb.br 

Denial of Rumor by the Ambassador of Brazil in Washington, D.C., June 8, 2000

From: Paulo Roberto de Almeida
Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2000, 17:56
To: 'jciencia@domain.com.br'
Subject: Ciência Hoje/Amazônia

Attention Editors of Ciência Hoje Eletrônico, José Monserrat and Tiago Indiani:

Due to the unforeseen repercussions and the great commotion surrounding the matter of the so-called "Amazon maps," I ask that the following note be published over my signature.

Cordially,

Rubens Antonio Barbosa
Embassy of Brazil in Washington
<mailto:ambassador@brasilemb.org> ambassador@brasilemb.org
Fax: (1-202) 238-2827

On May 11, 2000, the journal Ciência Hoje Eletrônico [Science Today Electronic] published a letter to the editor from Simone de Freitas, of the Department of Ecology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in which she expressed her concern about instructional geography materials supposedly distributed in American schools that show the Brazilian territory divided into areas under Brazilian control and an "area of international control" (the Amazon Rain Forest).

There were inconsistencies in the supposed information, and this was indicated in a letter sent to the CHE editor on the same day by Minister Paulo Roberto de Almeida, my assistant in this Embassy. Such "news" caused a predictably great commotion in the community concerned, inspiring an enormous amount of correspondence and much additional disinformation, a process that continues to this day.

Asked about the source of her information, Ms. Freitas offered, on May 16, a letter of apology, published by the CHE on that day, which acknowledged that it had been an error to divulge information about which she had no confirmation or corroboration and concluded "that, most probably, this information is not true. I make a formal apology for divulging this information without concrete proof and without certainty of its veracity."

At the same time it was revealed that the information was being disseminated with its origin misleadingly attributed to the Brazil Center of the University of Texas, implicating Michelle Zweede as the person supposedly responsible. Ms. Zweede then furnished a "disclaimer" to justifiably exonerate the Brazil Center from any responsibility in divulging such false information. This disclaimer, however, did not stop those alarmed about the supposed "news" from continuing to disseminate it by means of the Internet. Some journalists compounded the error by divulging uninformed articles on the matter.

What can the Embassy do to clear up the matter from now on?

The initial source of the supposed news was a website

<http://www.brasil.iwarp.com/curtas.htm>, associated with the slogan "Brasil, Ame-o ou Deixe-o" [Brazil: love it or leave it], but with no identification of those responsible for the website.

The site actually contained the "news," the wording of which corresponded exactly to Ms. Freitas's first "letter" to CHE.

The "news" was in the meantime (between the 16th and the 18th of May) removed from the website, and in its place a "Retraction" was published justifying the lack of identification of the "news" sources by alleging that the hard drive had been lost. The "retraction" is found at <http://brasil.iwarp.com/retrata.htm>.

No evidence has yet appeared that such maps exist or that they are being used in American schools. Everything appears to have originated, not from a supposed "American conspiracy" to dismember the Amazon Rain Forest, but from disinformation "made in Brazil" by sectors still unidentified.

Rubens Antonio Barbosa
Ambassador of Brazil in Washington, D.C.
<mailto:ambassador@brasilemb.org> ambassador@brasilemb.org
Fax: (1-202) 238-2827

(translated by Linda Jerome, LinJerome@cs.com)

Chronology of a Rumor

March/April 2000—The following note appears on the <brasil.iwarp.com> website: "A surprising fact was recently brought up by Brazilians observing the United States primary and middle-school education system: the world map used in the geography classes in some important American schools shows a divided Brazil. On the map in question, Brazil is the territory below the Pantanal and the Amazon region; the remainder of the country is labeled "Area of International Control." In other schools, the teachers ask for student support of an intervention and, if necessary, a war to tear the Amazon region away from the "destroyers of nature (Brazilians)." This is yet another proof that the foreigners' idea of intervening in the Amazon has now evolved into the operative phase."

The note spreads throughout the Internet. Soon maps of a divided Brazil accompany the messages, maps that are also found on the <brasil.iwarp.com> website and are apparently the creation of the website's authors.

May 11, 2000—After receiving the message, Professor Simone de Freitas, of the Department of Ecology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, writes to the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência [Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science] journal Ciência Hoje Eletrônico [Science Today Electronic] (CHE). Without verifying the origin of the information, CHE publishes the letter online, thereby giving it credibility and causing it to circulate even more. On the same day Minister-Counselor Paulo Roberto de Almeida, of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington DC, writes to CHE, asking the journal to obtain clarification from the reader Simone de Freitas and indicating that once it possesses precise information, the Embassy can investigate the matter.

Also at the beginning of May, Senator Marina Silva (Workers Party, Acre) telephones the researcher Michelle Zweede, of the Brazil Center at the University of Texas, Austin, asking the researcher's help in investigating the messages. Zweede then sends an E-mail to "contatos@brasil.iwarp.com," the address indicated on the website, asking, "Which American schools were using the maps? Who are the "Brazilians observing" the phenomenon? Zweede receives no response from the site, but three days after sending her own message, she receives a message from the University of Florida asking her the very same questions. To her surprise, the message from Florida reproduces the note from <brasil.iwarp.com> but, in addition, her signature, Michelle Zweede, now appears at the bottom, along the affiliation of the University of Texas, thus adding supposed credibility to the invented information.

May 16, 2000—CHE publishes a letter from Simone de Freitas apologizing for spreading information that is possibly incorrect.

May 17 or 18, 2000—The <brasil.iwarp.com> website publishes a retraction. "The source of the news is no longer [sic] in our possession due to computer problems," it alleges. "We lost the hard drive containing it." The authors of the site admit that "after much research, it was not possible to locate the origin" of the news, "nor can we find it on the World Wide Web" or among the site's collaborators. "In spite of reaching a certain consensus among our team members as to the author of the assertion [the source] and since we do not have the proof in our hands, we judge it inconsiderate to keep the denouncement on our website and we are withdrawing it," concludes the note, adding, "We hope this withdrawal is only temporary since we will continue our efforts to solve the problem."

May 23, 2000—After receiving the E-mail with Zweede's forged signature, the Estado de São Paulo newspaper social columnist César Giobbi publishes a note that, once again, reproduces the original message. A copy of Giobbi's note is distributed over the Internet citing the newspaper—but not mentioning the society column—as the source.

June 8, 2000—Due to the publication of his letter by CHE, Minister-Counselor Paulo Roberto de Almeida is inundated by messages from angry Brazilians demanding action. On the same day Ambassador Rubens Barbosa sends a new letter to CHE, explaining that there is no evidence that such maps exist in the United States.

June 9, 2000—The University of Texas initiates an investigation of the unauthorized use of its name.

June 11, 2000—At a ceremony in Brasília, Admiral Sérgio Chagasteles, the Navy commander, gives a speech that is interpreted as a warning of the imminent internationalization of the Amazon.

June 15, 2000—Anthony Harrington, the new U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, concludes his first official speech in Brazil by saying, "There are those in Brazil who believe that the United States is out to dominate the world. They see Uncle Sam as the big bully with the big stick. Typical of that way of thinking is the belief that the United States has secret plans to invade the Amazon in the name of saving the rain forest. That idea is so ludicrous that I feel a little silly talking about it. But in the name of moving on, of allowing Americans and Brazilians to get to the serious issues that we face together, let me make this clear: The Amazon belongs to Brazil. It always will. And the myth that the United States would invade is simply ridiculous. Period."

October 11, 2000—In discussing Third World debt during the second presidential candidates' debate, George W. Bush says, "Or do you trade debt for valuable rain forest lands? Makes some sense."

Partially adapted from Linda Beck, "Internet cria rumor sobre internacionalização da Amazônica" [Internet creates rumor about internationalization of the Amazon], Estado de S. Paulo, June 12, 2000, by Linda Jerome  LinJerome@cs.com).

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