An Argentine man was arrested in Rio de Janeiro after hurling a racist slur at a woman while waiting in line at a supermarket. He was reported to local police by a tourist — a fellow Argentine — who witnessed the incident.
The case comes as Argentine lawyer Agostina Páez awaits her sentence for similar charges after making racist gestures to a group of men in January while visiting Río as a tourist.
She was held in house arrest for over two months before returning to her province of Santiago del Estero in early April, where she wil await the verdict of a Brazilian judge.
On Monday, the Argentine man, identified by Brazilian and Argentine press as 67-year-old José Luis Haile, got upset at a supermarket in the southern area of Rio because the queue was not moving.
At that moment, he started an argument with the young woman who was in front of him, using a racist and misoginistic slur repeatedly. According to reports, the woman is a delivery app worker and was buying items for a client.
“Another Argentine man, who was also in the queue, was outraged by the incident and asked municipal guards to help,” said a statement from the Rio Municipal Guard posted to Instagram.
The officers arrested Haile and took him to a police station, where the incident was reported and the man was held in custody, the statement added, along with a video of them escorting him.
Injúria racial
Haile has been living in Brazil for at least two years, according to what he told police. In his social media accounts he can be seen selling corn on the cob from a cart at Copacabana.
The man was charged with injúria racial, a serious offense punishable with two to five years in prison in Brazil.
Outlets from the Buenos Aires city of La Plata, such as El Día and 0221, reported that the man was originally from there and used to work trading Argentine pesos for dollars. In 2018, he was arrested for attacking another man who also traded money for a living.
