Elon Musk Eyes Satellite Deal in Brazilian Amazon

The multibillionaire, who recently agreed to buy Twitter, is planning to expand Starlink across much of the developing world over the next year after already setting up the service in more than 30 countries. Located only several hundred miles from Earth, the satellites allow information to be beamed through space, meaning remote areas with little existing infrastructure can connect to the internet.

“Super excited to be in Brazil for [the] launch of Starlink for 19,000 unconnected schools in rural areas & environmental monitoring of Amazon!” the South African-born entrepreneur wrote Friday on

Twitter.

Mr. Musk, who also runs

Tesla Inc.,

recently made the satellite-internet system available in Ukraine following pleas by the country following its invasion by Russia. Starlink’s website shows that the service is already available in parts of southeast Brazil.

Mr. Bolsonaro, Brazil’s right-wing leader, has expressed support for Mr. Musk since he said he would buy Twitter, calling the billionaire a “legend of freedom” who would reintroduce “freedom of speech” to social media.

Since taking office in 2019, Mr. Bolsonaro, a firebrand former army captain, has frequently clashed with social-media platforms over their efforts to combat disinformation. In October,

Facebook

removed a video by Mr. Bolsonaro in which he claimed that Covid-19 vaccines were linked with developing AIDS. Mr. Bolsonaro is also under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for allegedly spreading false information ahead of this year’s presidential elections in October.

“It’s the beginning of a love affair,” said Mr. Bolsonaro of his meeting with Mr. Musk on Friday at a luxury São Paulo resort. “I’m certain that it’s going to end in marriage very soon.”

Lawyers raised questions over the timing of the announcement. Polls currently show Mr. Bolsonaro losing his reelection bid in October to former leftist leader

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

While Mr. Bolsonaro is eager to win over potential voters with the promise of new investments, Brazilian law prevents any president from committing to major new spending six months before an election, said Bruno Milanez, a lawyer based in the southern city of Curitiba. “To put this plan into practice, it will be necessary for the president to win a new term.”

Some environmentalists also expressed skepticism over the partnership. “Brazil has since the late 1980s done a very good job of monitoring annual loss of its forest,” said Dan Nepstad, founder and president of the California-based Earth Innovation Institute, which has worked in the Amazon for more than 30 years. While Mr. Musk is certainly in a position to help those efforts, he will need to work alongside state and federal authorities, he said. “His technology can be useful if it’s used to strengthen the existing programs rather than an attempt to reinvent the wheel,” said Mr. Nepstad.

The biggest problem in protecting the Amazon is often not monitoring the region, but what is done with those images, said Mr. Nepstad.

Deforestation in the Amazon has accelerated under Mr. Bolsonaro, who once nicknamed himself “Captain Chainsaw”—in part because his calls for economic development in the jungle have emboldened land grabbers and wildcat miners, environmentalists said.

Mr. Musk didn’t give any information on how his satellites could monitor the Amazon, given they were not developed to capture images.

Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]