In Porto Feliz, Brazil, on Friday, May 20, 2022, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro welcomes police as he arrives at a resort hotel where he is set to meet with Elon Musk. Musk, the Telsa and SpaceX CEO, tweeted that he was in Brazil to help extend Internet connectivity to Amazonian remote schools and to monitor Amazon’s environmental conditions.
According to Reuters Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, met with President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil on Friday to explore connectivity and other projects in the Amazon rainforest.
The meeting was organized by Communications Minister Fábio Faria, who has stated that he is looking for partnerships with the world’s richest man to bring or improve internet in schools and health facilities in rural areas using technology developed by SpaceX and Starlink, as well as to protect the rainforest.
Super excited to be in Brazil for launch of Starlink for 19,000 unconnected schools in rural areas & environmental monitoring of Amazon! 🇧🇷 🌳 🛰 ♥️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2022
According to official data from the Brazilian space agency, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased under Bolsonaro, reaching its highest annual rate in more than a decade. Bolsonaro’s detractors claim he is largely to blame, claiming that his zealous backing for regional development has empowered loggers and land grabbers.
Bolsonaro and Musk were shown standing together on a stage and fielding questions from a group of students in a video broadcast live on the president’s Facebook account.
Elon Musk is an entrepreneur and business magnate who co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors. He also founded SpaceX and is now working on developing the Hyperloop and Starlink.
Elon Musk was born in South Africa in 1971. He showed an early interest in computers and technology and eventually moved to the United States to attend Stanford University. However, he dropped out after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He co-founded PayPal in 1998, which was later acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion.
In 2004, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer, and space transport services company. SpaceX has since launched numerous rockets and spacecraft, including the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. The company has also developed the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
Elon Musk is also working on Starlink, a satellite-based internet service. He had already launched over 10,000 satellites into orbit in order to provide high-speed internet access to people around the world.
“There’s a lot that technology can do to improve quality of life,” Musk told the audience.
Despite the fact that none of the students inquired about Musk’s potential takeover of Twitter, Bolsonaro described it as a “breath of hope.”
“Freedom is the future’s cement,” he remarked.
Musk has offered $44 billion to acquire Twitter, but the sale can’t go through unless the firm discloses details on how many accounts on the platform are spam or bots, Musk stated this week.
Bolsonaro, like Musk, has tried to portray himself as a defender of free speech, opposing the deplatforming of figures such as his supporter, former US President Donald Trump.
The encounter with Bolsonaro comes only five months before the far-right leader runs for re-election in a closely watched race.