Brazilian federal police arrest Spanish citizen at São Paulo airport for racism

Brazil’s federal police have detained a Spanish citizen in São Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism, in the latest of a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.

Brazil has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America. Insulting a person on the basis of race carries a penalty of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine.

The crew of a Latam airlines flight arriving from the north-eastern city of São 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, local media widely reported that police arrested an Argentinian 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 Patricia Bullrich, a senator in Argentina and a close ally of the country’s president, Javier Milei. Both celebrated her return to Argentina. Legal proceedings are still ongoing.

Police arrested another Argentinian, 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. The local news outlet G1 reported on 17 June that a court indicted Murias, who remains in pre-trial 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 15 May 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.