É enganosa uma publicação no Twitter que afirma que “o mundo se rende à importância do Brasil”, fazendo referência ao convite feito pelo governo dos Estados Unidos ao presidente Jair Bolsonaro para participar da Cúpula das Américas.
Although the President of the United States, Joe Biden, in fact, invited the Brazilian president to the event that periodically brings together the leaders of North, South, Central America and the Caribbean, the invitation cannot be considered remarkable because, being a member country of the OAS (Organization of American States), Brazil would have guaranteed participation.
Comments on the post verified by Projeto Comprova indicate that many people understood that the invitation would be important. “They are respecting Brazil as it deserves and should. The captain is tough and Brazil now has an owner, we patriots and commanded by a great Brazilian”, wrote one of the users. “They said that the leader Bolsonaro was isolated and now they beg him to go!”, “Biden only called Bolsonaro to help because he knows he wins the elections in Brazil and will need Brazil up front”, said others.
Misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning is altered; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.
Scope of publication
Comprova investigates the most far-reaching suspicious content on social networks. As of June 8, the publication had more than 2,600 interactions between comments, likes and shares.
what does the author say
Sought after a comment on Twitter, the author of the publication did not respond to the contact.
How do we check
The report sought information on the functioning and purpose of the Summit of the Americas on official websites such as the OAS, the US State Department, the US Embassy in Brazil, as well as news from the Brazilian press.
The team also reached out to the OAS, the US Department of State and the White House to understand how the process of convening the countries participating in the meeting is carried out.
Finally, the team spoke with the coordinator of the international relations course at Faap (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado) and consultant for the International Relations Commission of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) in São Paulo, Fernanda Magnotta, who analyzed Brazil’s participation in this year’s meeting.
The Summit of the Americas
The event is a regular meeting between 35 governments of the countries of America and the Caribbean, which aims to discuss common political issues and build a shared vision to face the challenges faced by the countries of the region.
The summit takes place approximately once every three years and is the only meeting of all the leaders of America and the Caribbean.
In addition to government officials, each meeting is made up of the Gric (Summit Implementation Review Group), the Joint Summits Working Group —composed of 13 regional and international institutions that provide technical assistance during the negotiation of summit topics—, organizations from civil society, representatives of indigenous communities, civic leaders, business people and young entrepreneurs.
The host nation serves as chairperson of the summits process and the previous host serves as vice chair.
According to the US Department of State, the first Summit of the Americas was convened by then US President Bill Clinton and took place in December 1994 in Miami, Florida. The purpose of the meeting was to create the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).
Since then, eight editions have followed: Santiago, Chile (1998); Quebec City, Canada (2001); Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005); Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (2009); Cartagena, Colombia (2012); Panama City, Panama (2015) and Lima, Peru (2018).
As stated on the website of the OAS, which serves as the summit’s technical secretary, some topics already discussed in previous meetings were education, the drug problem in the Americas, environmental sustainability, energy security, discrimination and crime.
Brazil at the event
In 2022, the Summit of the Americas is being held in Los Angeles, United States, between the 6th and 10th of June. The theme of this ninth edition is “Building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future”.
To the report, the OAS and the US State Department stated that it is the host country, in this case the US, that issues the invitations to the summit.
The only true information from the post verified here is that, in fact, the US government invited Jair Bolsonaro to participate in the meeting, as stated in the statement by the White House special advisor: “This morning, in my meeting with President Bolsonaro, I reiterated our desire for Brazil to be an active participant in the summit, as we recognize the collective responsibility to move towards a more inclusive and prosperous future”.
On May 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Bolsonaro had agreed to attend the meeting. The Brazilian president is due to arrive in the United States on Thursday, June 9.
However, in the analysis of the coordinator of the international relations course at Faap and consultant to the International Relations Commission of the OAB/SP, Fernanda Magnotta, the invitation made by the United States government to Bolsonaro is not significant because Brazil is a member of the OAS, which ensures participation in the summit.
“Brazil being invited doesn’t represent much, because it’s customary. It seems to me that the expression ‘the world surrenders to the importance of Brazil’ is an attempt to capitalize politically, in the context of the elections. with Biden, among other reasons, to try to contest the idea that the country is an international pariah and is isolated. There is a domestic political logic”, says Magnotta.
Also according to the expert, this year’s meeting is very symbolic and expected for two reasons. The first is that the United States has not hosted the summit since its first edition and the second is that the last meeting was considered a fiasco in the face of the absence of several leaders, such as Donald Trump himself, then president of the United States.
Absences at the event
According to information published in the press on June 6, the first day of the summit, the host country did not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, considering that the countries do not have democratic regimes.
The absence of invitations has generated diplomatic instability and leaders of some nations have confirmed that they will not be present at the event. The presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, announced that they had declined the invitation to participate in the meeting.
Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced that he will not go to Los Angeles unless all other hemisphere leaders attend the event, and Uruguayan Head of State Luis Lacalle Pou canceled the trip after testing positive for Covid-19. .
The White House was contacted, but did not return until the close of this check.
Why do we investigate?
Comprova investigates content about the pandemic, elections and public policies that reach a degree of viralization on social networks. By being shared by profiles that support the president, the investigated publication helps to promote the idea that the global repercussion of the federal government is one of acclaim, without information to support this perception.
Previously, Projeto Comprova showed that a post comparing Biden and Bolsonaro’s speeches on the use of masks was misleading and that a popular poll did not officialize Jair Bolsonaro as Person of the Year in Time magazine.
