Online Challenges For Misinforming Latin America: narrative analysis of extreme weather in Brazil, Chile and Peru

The report examines climate misinformation following extreme weather events in Latin America, focusing on case studies in Brazil, Chile, and Peru. It finds that the high visibility, multi-causal nature, and emotional impact of these events make them ideal for actors to sow confusion, assign blame to scapegoats, and advance political agendas. In Brazil, a cyclone led to false claims about 'burst dams' to attack political opponents. In Chile, wildfires were framed as 'terrorist' arson to distract from a 14-year mega-drought. In Peru, Cyclone Yaku was falsely attributed to the HAARP project. The report concludes that these narratives often amplify existing political polarizations and rely on the misattribution of causes to hinder climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

• Extreme weather events are particularly susceptible to misinformation because they are highly visible, multi-causal, and elicit strong emotional responses, which allows actors to use them as 'proof points' for agendas or to channel anxiety toward scapegoats.
• In Brazil, a September 2023 cyclone in Rio Grande do Sul triggered a false narrative claiming floods were caused by the opening of dam gates, a claim propagated by local politicians and right-wing figures to attack the PT (Workers’ Party) government.
• Following the February 2023 wildfires in Chile, a narrative emerged framing the disasters primarily as the result of 'terrorist' arson, which distracted from the role of a 14-year mega-drought and climate change.
• In Peru, the impact of Cyclone Yaku in March 2023 was falsely attributed to the HAARP project and the Jicamarca Observatory, leveraging a global conspiracy theory to suggest the weather was man-made.
• Climate misinformation in these regions typically does not create new tropes but instead amplifies existing political tensions and established global denialist narratives, such as those regarding HAARP or arson.
• A consistent strategy across the analyzed cases is the deliberate misattribution of the cause of damage to criminal or conspiratorial intentions to shift focus away from climatic factors.
• Some climate misinformation is intentionally vague, cherry-picking historical weather events to argue that current extremes are normal, which makes such claims harder to disprove than event-specific lies.
• Official government interventions to debunk misinformation, such as the Brazilian Attorney General compelling a journalist to retract claims, can successfully discredit specific lies but do not necessarily improve the overall information ecosystem.

APA

Roots (2023). Online Challenges For Misinforming Latin America: narrative analysis of extreme weather in Brazil, Chile and Peru. https://poweredbyroots.org/media/pages/what-we-do/tackling-climate-disinformation/4322d7c55d-1714051167/report_misinforming-latin-america.pdf

Chicago

Roots. Online Challenges For Misinforming Latin America: narrative analysis of extreme weather in Brazil, Chile and Peru. 2023. https://poweredbyroots.org/media/pages/what-we-do/tackling-climate-disinformation/4322d7c55d-1714051167/report_misinforming-latin-america.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Roots |title=Online Challenges For Misinforming Latin America: narrative analysis of extreme weather in Brazil, Chile and Peru |date=2023 |url=https://poweredbyroots.org/media/pages/what-we-do/tackling-climate-disinformation/4322d7c55d-1714051167/report_misinforming-latin-america.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{roots2023online, author = {{Roots}}, title = {{Online Challenges For Misinforming Latin America: narrative analysis of extreme weather in Brazil, Chile and Peru}}, institution = {Roots}, year = {2023}, url = {https://poweredbyroots.org/media/pages/what-we-do/tackling-climate-disinformation/4322d7c55d-1714051167/report_misinforming-latin-america.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }