I think they're already retired quite long ago.
There are bazillions of second-hand F-16s available on the market. Such as those, ex- USAF, stored at Davis Monthan. Or leftovers from Europe: 348 procured 50 years ago, 315 brought to MLU 25 years ago.
The thing is though, some air forces require fresher airplanes, like Korea for example. During the delays concerning KF-X decisions, they were actively looking around for used Falcons and Hornets as a stop gap, but every available airframes were deemed too old/fatigued. Must be the case for severl other AF as well.
So not every AF would be looking for those used aircrafts, only the most broke ones.
Mind you, I'm not quite sure this will go on - the news may very well been leaked as form of pressure against cutting Gripen acquisitions, and there always is the option of 'buying neither', if things are truly dire. But the government is feeling the pinch...
That must be truly dire situations though, considering the fact that their Mirage IIIs were already retired without proper replacement (apart from the second hand Mirage 2000s that were only just a stop gap). From what I understand, their first batch of Gripens are meant to replace F-5, so still no replacement for M IIIs.
Brazilian AF were talking about a likely second batch (AMX replacement) with a possible third batch (fill the gap the Mirage III retirement has left) and now I don't see the F-5s and AMX not getting replaced.
South America is one of those lucky places not immediately threatened by the "usual suspects" a) China b) Russia c) crazy whacky Middleast.
Then again, they don't need any SSNs (or any aircraft carriers or air defence ships) if we simply consider their regional peers. What Brazil really wants is to become a regional power with force projection capability. It just hasn't gone their way until now because there has been a lack of fundamentals (economics) but we'll see how it pans put in the coming decades.
Anyhow, even if they get the second-hand falcons, they'll eventually beed a replacement sooner than the Gripens.