Brazilian federal police have arrested a Spanish citizen at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo on charges of racism, the latest in a series of detentions of foreign tourists for similar offenses in the South American nation.
According to police, the female traveler was taken into custody immediately after disembarking a Latam Airlines flight from São Luis, in northeastern Brazil. She is accused of making racist remarks directed at workers unloading luggage from the aircraft. The flight crew alerted police after the incident occurred.
Brazil has one of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America. Under the law, insulting someone based on race can carry a prison sentence of 2 to 5 years, along with fines.
LATAM Airlines condemned the behavior, stating there was no justification for the aggression targeting its staff and expressing opposition to all forms of racism and discrimination.
The case comes amid a string of recent detentions of foreign travelers in Brazil on racism allegations. In January, Argentine citizen Agostina Páez was arrested in Rio de Janeiro after being filmed mimicking a monkey in front of a waiter at a nightclub. The video went viral on social media. Initially banned from leaving Brazil, Páez returned to Argentina in April and met with Senator Patricia Bullrich, a close ally of President Javier Milei. Both celebrated her return. Legal proceedings remain ongoing.
Also in May, another Argentine, Eduardo Ignacio Murias, was arrested in Minas Gerais on allegations of photographing and filming a child without permission and later sharing the images with racist messages in Spanish. According to a June 17 report by Brazilian news outlet G1, a court has indicted Murias, who remains in pretrial detention.
Police also arrested a Chilean citizen in May for making racist and homophobic remarks toward a flight crew on a journey between Guarulhos and Frankfurt. According to a May 15 statement, the suspect tried to open the aircraft door mid-flight, and when stopped by the crew, uttered the offensive words.
