Hi Ana: Congratulations on the baby. I hope everything worked out well.
I stay anonymous online because I have accrued assets and I do not want to jeopardise my ability to earn an income or encourage anyone to target me. One idea I had was to create a low cost service to provide unconventional advice to people in similar situations to you find solutions to this problem. I have written my book as a low cost solution to help people.
I am assuming you borrowed directly from your university rather than from a traditional student lender. If so, your university may take a different approach to collections. I know one person who left the US, but received a call at his work because he had posted his university and company on LinkedIn and Facebook. The debt collector harassed him several times, but the communications ceased.
In your case, it sounds as if the university have hired a lawyer/debt collector. How much money did you borrow? The decline in the Brazilian real certainly makes it more difficult to repay. I know in Poland courts modified mortgages taken out in foreign currencies when the zloty declined. My suspicion is the lender is bluffing. I imagine collecting debts in a country like Brazil is similarly difficult to a place like Italy, but I genuinely do not know. Court cases take a long time to materialise.
The general suggestion is to read your initial loan contract to see when the debt happened based on the applicable law and jurisdiction in the contract. If it is US law, they may not even have the ability to collect the debt in Brazil unless the lender first obtains a US judgment. Second, check the statute of limitations, stall for time, and do not make any payments. Third, do not respond to communication from the debt collector. Fourth, remove social media accounts and any information that makes you traceable online. Fifth, change your phone and even consider moving depending on how practical the latter is. Sixth, if you have assets, consider stashing them offshore to make you judgment proof.
Let me know your thoughts. I can try to provide you with some contact details, as your circumstances are new. I am keen to learn more and see what I can do to help. I would need to know better specifics to advise you better, but I do not want you divulging private information online.