Gerdau interview questions

Phone screen from HR person, then phone screen from hiring manager and team, then in-person group interview. Everything seemed to go well. I was scheduled to have an interview with my counterpart in Brazil the following week. After the interview I was shown around the office, I thanked the hiring manager for his time and I left, looking forward to my interview the next week. The next day I sent a thank you email, again thanking the interview team for their time and consideration and stated that I was looking forward to my phone interview the next week. Not 5 minutes later I got an email from HR stating that they had decided to fill the role internally. I'm fairly certain this isn't true because the position stayed open for months. I never got any feedback regarding why I wasn't being considered, despite many requests...complete silence. I don't think this is any way to treat a candidate, especially one that had to drive 2 hours each way and stay in a hotel overnight to make this happen.