I see nothing with any of these pieces linked above, to make me think they are 1) definitely wrong or 2) the author has gone "crazy."

We may quibble over quality, or standards, laziness, but you seem to be rather invested. No one is right all the time, and there is opinion in his piece. Take with a grain of salt.

Not to mention in a country as big as Brazil, anything could and probably did happen, at least at a small scale. GG is living there, I've been there, and the articles did not seem obviously wrong.

I'll keep my eyes peeled however.