Brazil’s federal police detained a Spanish citizen in Sao Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism on Wednesday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.
Brazil, which has grappled with its legacy of slavery, has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America, with protections enshrined in the 1988 constitution. Insulting a person on the basis of race carries a penalty of imprisonment from 2 to 5 years and a fine.
The crew of a LATAM airlines flight arriving from the northeastern city of Sao Luis called police, who arrested the Spanish national as she disembarked, after she allegedly made racially abusive remarks directed at the workers who unload the aircraft’s baggage, police said in a statement.
The airline company said that there was no justification for the aggression directed at its employees and condemned all forms of racism and discrimination.
In January, police arrested Argentine citizen Agostina Páez in Rio after being filmed mimicking a monkey toward a waiter at a nightclub. Video footage of the incident went viral.
Initially barred from leaving Brazil, Páez eventually returned to Argentina in April where images showed her meeting with Sen. Patricia Bullrich, a close ally of Argentina’s President, Javier Milei. Both celebrated her return to Argentina. Legal proceedings are still ongoing.
Police arrested another Argentine, Eduardo Ignacio Murias, in Minas Gerais in May, after he allegedly photographed and filmed a young child without authorization and shared the images accompanied by racist messages in Spanish. Local news outlet G1 reported on June 17 that a court indicted Murias, who remains in pretrial detention.
Police also arrested a Chilean citizen in May for racial and homophobic slurs against crew members of a flight between Guarulhos and Frankfurt, according to a May 15 statement. The suspect tried to open the aircraft door during the flight and, when restrained by the crew, uttered racial and homophobic slurs against the professionals, the statement said.
Brazil kidnapped more Africans for forced labor than any other nation and was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.
But South America’s biggest country also has a history of laws against racism due to pressure from movements for racial equality.
“Social movements played a very important role in ensuring that the Black population was recognized in the 1988 constitution,” which outlaws racism, said Irapuã Santana, a lawyer specializing in anti-racism and a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think-tank and university.
In January 2023, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned a law which equated racial insults to the crime of racism, a move which strengthened judicial tools for combating racism.
Cases of racism in Brazil have been attracting more visibility as people become more aware of the laws and see that it is possible to get a response from the state, said Santana.
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