There are 2 ways of converting the license (I'm not discussing the question if you can or cannot work - I don't know anything about that, you should talk to the Federal Police office).
1) You need to get a declaration of your hours and licenses from your school in the US, then take it to an accredited translator, and then you can file your application directly with ANAC
2) Go to a school that have a Examiner in Brasil, fly 6 hours to satisfy the requirements of recent experience (they all will be dual command - for IFR Single/Multi - look for item 61.21 in
http://www2.anac.gov.br/biblioteca/rbac/RBAC61EMD01.pdf) and do the flight exam in the school.
The second option is faster, but it's more expensive and is pratically error free if you find a good school (I can give you advice in some good schools in MG state).
I'm a CFI in Brasil and we did a lot of licenses conversion (we call it "convalidação"), including a CPL for a German pilot (JAR->ANAC).
Anyway, you should verify the information that ANAC is no longer converting CPL licenses to non-brazilians - I didn't hear anything about that.