Only Brazilians allowed in TAM exit rows?
 

I purchased my ticket on TAM online and paid extra for an exit row seat. Before I was allowed to purchase the ticket, I had to confirm that I speak Portuguese. I had no problem with the exit row seat from Sao Paulo to Goiania but, when I went to fly back to Sao Paulo from Goiania, TAM wouldn't let me have the exit row because I am not Brazilian. I argued about it (in Portuguese) as did my three Brazilian friends who were with me, but the agent wouldn't budge. They did give me the aisle bulkhead seat so I was reasonably comfortable, but I was surprised at this "rule" which doesn't appear anywhere online.

I'm not inclined to pursue this with TAM because it wasn't that big a deal for me, but I thought other people should be aware of the possible issue.

Well, seems to be yet another possible example of Brazilian burro-crazy. If your Portuguese proficiency is at native fluency, what's their problem? As far as I'm aware, the rules for those seats include being fully mobile and able to understand emergency instructions.
And given the general level of English proficiency and unintelligible accent among TAM's international crews, transmitting and understanding emergency instructions should not be made an issue of by that airline.

It's not a rule. Sounds like you ran into an airline employee who didn't understand the regs. Just proficiency in Portuguese required (to be able to understand and relay emergency instructions), but even that is not regularly enforced. I've sat in the exit row and I'm not a Brazilian citizen. I have a permanent residency card, but have never been asked to show it. At what point were you asked your citizenship status? At the airport when you wanted to purchase the upgrade?

I've seen passengers get up and move to the exit rows (sometimes empty because people didn't want to pay the extra R$) once a flight has commenced. No one asked them their citizenship or what language they spoke.

Oddly enough, it was the guy at the baggage counter who told me that I had to get another seat. I had paid for the upgrade to an exit row and checked in online and I had my boarding pass and my U.S. passport in my hand. When I went to check my suitcase, the baggage guy asked to see my boarding pass, and told me that I couldn't sit in an exit row. We had a heated discussion about it in Portuguese -- his position was that you had to be born in Brazil or have a Brazilian passport to sit in an exit row. That is clearly not a uniform policy since I had flown in an exit row on TAM a few days earlier.

Odd, indeed. Baggage guy? Not even the counter agent? I've never had a "baggage guy" look at my boarding pass. The baggage guy wouldn't be on the plane, and doesn't issue boarding passes, so how could he tell you to get a new boarding pass or sit somewhere else? Did you then go to a ticket agent or customer service rep? In the words of a popular song of a few years ago, how bizarre, how bizarre.

that's nonsense... i have flown tam on exit row at least a dozen times..no issues

Perhaps the baggage guy was hinting for a "tip"?