Analysis by Luiz Romero
In 2000, when the internet in Brazil was still in its infancy, an email with an alarming message about the Amazon went viral. It claimed that the United States and the United Nations had taken the forest from Brazilians and transformed it into a protected area a falsehood, but one that reflected a long-running conspiracy theory still promoted today by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The email described a purported geography textbook being used in “important American schools,” which labeled the Amazon as an “international control zone.” Next to a map, a misspelled text said that the forest was “surrounded by irresponsable, cruel, and authoritary countries” and that the United States and the United Nations, with the backing of the “G23,” transformed it into “an international park with very severe rules of exploration.”