Though a large part of my stereotypes section on the blog is intended to education gringos about Brazil, once and awhile I like to share information with Brazilians about the US and how Americans think about Brazil.
One of the biggest and most successful conspiracy theories in Brazil, which I believe was originally promulgated by the Brazilian government, has been ingrained in the Brazilian mindset through a combination of education, media promotion, and maybe just a tad of brainwashing.
A shocking number of Brazilians, including intelligent, reasonable people, believe that the United States wants to take over the Amazon, and that American NGOs that operate there (and even around Brazil) are just fronts for CIA agents trying to exert control over the rainforest. In turn, there's a great distrust of foreign non-profits and of foreigners doing social work, especially in the Amazon.
The Brazilian government seems to think that scientists interested in working in the Amazon must be biopirates, trying to steal undiscovered secrets and specimens, despite little to no evidence to prove it. The government has now required all foreign NGOs to register themselves in Brazil, though less than half did so by the February 2009 deadline. The authorities claim unregistered NGOs will be kicked out of Brazil.
The other really obnoxious thing about this theory is that foreigners doing excellent, honest work to try to better the lives of Brazilians are sometimes scapegoated and accused of being CIA agents, rapists, or the like. Craig Eliot Alden has been in jail for seven years after supposedly abusing children at the orphanage he ran for 11 years in rural Goias, though he claims to be innocent. Sister Dorothy, a nun, social worker, and environmental advocate was murdered in cold blood in the Amazon several years ago, and her enemies still insist she was a CIA agent. Ironically, those foreigners dedicating their lives to better Brazil are doing so in part due to the failure of the Brazilian government to care for its own people. For this reason, it makes sense why the government would be touchy about foreign NGOs.
This week, the latest in the Amazon conspiracy appeared in the Sao Paulo Carnival parade, drawn on the body of the infamous dancer Viviane Castro, who helped Sao Clemente lose its place in the Special Group of samba schools in Rio last year for parading completely naked (it turns out she had a really good tapa-sexo, a sliver of material to cover her privates, so good it was invisible). In any event, this is how she appeared this year:
On her left thigh, President Obama is staring up at her crotch, while on her right thigh, President Lula gazes longingly at her privates. On her belly, the phrase "For sale" is written, in reference to the Amazon. (Though to me, it looks like something else is on sale if you know what I mean).
But this is just one of many manifestations of this conspiracy theory. One of the best known and most widely circulated is this map, supposedly a copy from an American elementary school geography textbook. It might, might be mildly plausible if the English wasn't so embarrassingly bad:
So are you ready, Brazil?
I was never, nor am I currently, nor will I ever be a CIA agent (trust me, they don't want me. I have way too big a mouth). So I can't be 100% sure since I don't work for the US government, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and serve you up my highly plausible theory:
We don't want your damn Amazon.
Really.
We have bigger fish to fry.
If you'd like to blame someone for the environmental devastation and the "robbery" of resources of the Amazon, best turn to your own people, a small but unscrupulous elite, the modern-day Brazilian coroneis who think they are above the law. Bringing them to justice would be a first step.
But anyway, if I were you, what I'd be worried about is the Tupi oil basin. Now that, I'm sure, plenty of Americans have their eyes on. Best send your top ABIN agents to Campos instead of Manaus.
