When Racism Is a Crime: Brazil Puts a Tourist on Trial for Word and Gesture

​

“Agostina Páez, a white Argentine tourist, faces trial in Brazil for making a racist gesture and uttering a slur at bar employees. The incident, captured on video and widely shared, sparked debate between Argentina and Brazil, highlighting differing views on race and racism. While some in Argentina defend Páez, viewing her as a victim of “woke laws,” Brazil sees the case as a testament to its strong antiracism laws.

​

An Argentine woman, who is white, could face years in prison after being accused of racism. The case has set off intense debate in Argentina and Brazil.

April 1, 2026

Agostina Páez arriving at the Argentine Consulate in Rio de Janeiro this month to attend a news conference.Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Ana Ionova and Lucía Cholakian Herrera

Ana Ionova reported from Rio de Janeiro and Lucía Cholakian Herrera from Buenos Aires.

Leer en español

The racist gesture, made by a white Argentine tourist toward waiters at a Rio de Janeiro bar, was captured on video and quickly ricocheted across the internet.

The video, recorded in January by an employee of the bar, showed Agostina Páez imitating a monkey and uttering a racist slur as she walked away.

In Brazil, the backlash was swift. Ms. Páez, a lawyer, was arrested and charged with making a racist insult, a crime under Brazilian law. Now, Ms. Páez, 29, faces a possible prison sentence of two to five years and hefty fines, in a case that has kindled fierce debate in Brazil and Argentina.

A court in Rio de Janeiro began hearing evidence last month, and will issue a verdict in the coming weeks. Ms. Páez has apologized for the gesture, but said she was provoked.

The case has captured headlines and fueled divisions between two neighboring South American countries whose governments have starkly different positions on race.

In Brazil, which only abolished slavery in 1888, the case exemplifies the country’s strong antiracism laws, which are part of a long and continuing struggle for racial justice. In Argentina, some, including conservative lawmakers, have come to Ms. Páez’s defense and cast her as a victim of “woke laws” gone too far.

A provocation, then a racist gesture

Around dawn on Jan. 14, Ms. Páez and her friends were leaving a bar in a beachfront Rio neighborhood. With details of the case under seal, it’s not clear how the confrontation began, but the prosecution said it started with a disagreement over the bar tab.

Ms. Páez has said, online and in interviews, that the bar overcharged her and two Argentine friends. Then, as the women left, she claimed, the employees made obscene gestures toward them.

Security camera footage from the bar, reviewed by The New York Times, appears to show an employee taunting the tourists as they were leaving the bar. The prosecution declined to comment on the video footage, citing the court’s order to keep the case details secret.

Ms. Páez did not respond to a request for an interview. She told Argentine media that she had not intended to be racist. “It was an emotional reaction,” she said. “I never imagined the gravity of it all.”

Sebastian Robles, one of her lawyers, stressed that her “action was a reaction” to the taunts, but recognized his client had violated Brazilian law.

“Brazil has long suffered from the issue of slavery,” Mr. Robles said. “The law and the offense have a history.”

Fabíola Tardin, the prosecutor in the case, said the disagreement over the bill did not justify Ms. Páez’s behavior or shield her from consequences.

“You can’t simply waive Brazilian law because she claims she didn’t know racism was a crime,” Ms. Tardin said in an interview.

“She is a victim of the Brazilian state,” said Lilia Lemoine, an Argentine lawmaker.Sarah Pabst for The New York Times

A victim in Argentina, a symbol of racial justice in Brazil

In her home country, Ms. Páez has been portrayed by some as a victim of an overzealous justice system.

They have pointed to claims made by Ms. Páez who said, on social media and in interviews, that she received death threats, had her legal rights violated and suffered from “extreme persecution” in Brazil. “I’m desperate, I’m scared to death,” she said in one video.

Prominent right-wing voices in Argentina have accused Brazil of trying to make an example of Ms. Páez by blowing the episode out of proportion.

“She is a victim of the Brazilian state,” said Lilia Lemoine, an Argentine lawmaker and close ally of President Javier Milei, accusing Brazil’s leftist government of pursuing “a vendetta.”

Mr. Milei, a self-proclaimed radical libertarian who rose to prominence among the global right by bashing progressive positions, has dismantled the agency combating discrimination in Argentina.

In Brazil, a majority Black country that is still grappling with the legacy of centuries of slavery, the case has been viewed in a starkly different light.

Racism has been enshrined in Brazil’s Constitution as a crime since 1988, but prosecutions are rare.

After a recent push by activists and lawmakers for more accountability, Brazil has implemented some of the strictest antiracism laws in the world.

Now, Ms. Páez’s trial has been celebrated as evidence that these laws are being applied.

“This is a source of national pride,” Ms. Tardin said. “It should be seen by Argentines as an inspiration, and not as a reason for hatred or resentment.”

Brazil says it is seeking justice, not retribution.

Wearing an ankle monitor, Ms. Páez has been under the watch of authorities in Rio since January because she was considered a flight risk.

Then, a court recently ruled that Ms. Páez could return to Argentina while she awaits the outcome of her trial, if she pays a $20,000 bail fee, according to her lawyer. Ms. Páez has paid the fee and is traveling back to Argentina on Wednesday, her lawyer said.

In the coming weeks, a Rio de Janeiro judge will decide Ms. Páez’s legal fate. Because she doesn’t have a criminal record and appeared remorseful, Ms. Tardin said the prosecution would not seek the maximum sentence if she were convicted.

She could face a shorter sentence in an Argentine prison or community service. The prosecution is also seeking tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the bar’s employees.

For Ms. Tardin, the case sends a clear message that her country will not tolerate racism.

“Brazil is being painted as this authoritarian country,” Ms. Tardin said, “when we are only seeking justice for the harm done.”

Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.“

Trump Commits A War Crime And Impeachable Offense At The Same Time With Easter Iran Threat

​

“On Easter Sunday, Trump issued a profane threat against Iran, demanding they reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face consequences. This threat, made on social media, is considered both an impeachable offense and a potential war crime.

​

The man that MAGAs call a Christian posted an unhinged and profane threat against Iran on Easter Sunday that was both a potential war crime and an impeachable offense.

Jason Easley

Donald Trump is torn. On one side is a weak president who seems to have no clue what he is doing with the war in Iran. Trump is also trying to play 1980s action movie hero and be the tough guy while threatening the people that he started a war with. 

The President Of The United States usually issues an Easter message to the country, and it is a pretty low-key holiday. 

PoliticusUSA is not beholden to any political party, billionaire, or special interest. Support us by becoming a subscriber.

Trump is spending his Easter Sunday issuing threats that are both impeachable and war crimes if they are acted on. 

Trump posted on his social media platform:

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP

I thought that Monday was the deadline for Iran to surrender, but now it is Tuesday. 

Jake Tapper read Trump’s threat on CNN:

Tapper had to provide viewers with a language warning, in case children were in the room:

 He has just threatened Iran in extraordinary graphic terms, giving the Iranian regime just over a day to either make a deal, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or face hell if your children are watching. Be warned, the president did not use polite language. 

It is Easter Sunday, and the United States has a president who can’t be quoted in front of children.

Let’s talk about the issue of war crimes.”

Trump Gives WHITE POWER MOVEMENT SPEECH to Racist White House Group

 

Ron DeSantis gets NIGHTMARE news in court - YouTube

 

Ron DeSantis gets NIGHTMARE news in court - YouTube

White Men Only! Gen. Honore slams Hegseth for blocking Black military promotions - YouTube

 

White Men Only! Gen. Honore slams Hegseth for blocking Black military promotions - YouTube

Death, displacement and military duties: children plunged into crisis by Middle East war

​

“The Middle East war has severely impacted children, with over 340 killed and thousands injured. Displacement has affected over 1.2 million children, with many living in dire conditions and facing psychological trauma. Reports of child soldiers in Iran and attacks on schools and healthcare facilities further exacerbate the crisis, disrupting education and endangering lives.

​

William Christou in Beirut, Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, Oliver Holmes in London

Millions of children have been plunged into crisis by the war in the Middle East, with reports of child soldiers in Iran, mass forced displacements in Lebanon and the killing of hundreds of minors.

According to the UN agency for children, Unicef, more than 340 children have been killed and thousands injured since the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran, which has retaliated with bombings across the region.

The highest reported child casualty event occurred on the first day of the war when a US missile strike on a school in Iran killed at least 160 children and teachers.

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon – and its continued attacks in the occupied West Bank and Gaza – have compounded the bloodshed. Across the region, more than 1.2 million children have been displaced.

“Children in the region are being exposed to horrific violence, while the very systems and services meant to keep them safe are coming under attack,” said Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell.

Following are some of the ways the war has affected children.

Forced displacement in Lebanon

More than 1.1 million people, including nearly 400,000 children, have been forced to flee their homes by Israeli bombing and displacement orders in Lebanon, according to a Unicef assessment. Nearly 90% of that total are living outside shelters, with many sleeping in the street.

Nidal Ahmed, 52, and two of his children are living in a tent in an impromptu encampment with hundreds of other families in Biel, Beirut’s nightclub district. This is Ahmed’s second displacement – his home in Tyre was destroyed in an airstrike on the second day of the Israel-Hezbollah war, and his brother’s home in the southern suburbs of Beirut was ordered to be emptied by Israel days after he had fled there.

Displaced children play football in a yard inside a school, which was converted into a shelter for displaced people. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

“It’s 5pm and we haven’t had anything to eat today,” Ahmed said, his eight-month-old daughter, Zahraa, sitting in a stained onesie in front of him. “We’ve only been able to give the kids tea and some bread. It’s not suitable for a child this young to eat bread, but what can we do?” he said, gesturing to some crumbs of old flatbread Zahraa had been chewing on.

After a month of displacement, Ahmed has run out of money to feed his children. He relies on local organisations which show up irregularly, distributing one meal on most, but not all, days.

The conditions of their displacement are “humiliating”, Ahmed said, pointing to the tent he has erected for him and his children, the blue tarpaulin hastily thrown over a wooden frame and pinned down with rocks. “I tried to cover it to protect us from the rain, but we wake up every morning with our mattresses soaked.”

Bar chart showing casualties in Lebanon as a direct result of Israeli aggression between 2 and 26 March 2026, with 1,345 people killed, 125 of them children

As his three-year-old son, Ahmad, plays with another child in a vacant lot, Ahmad says he gets to shower once a week, on Fridays, when his father drives them 30 minutes to the house of a friend, who allows them to use the bathroom. For their more immediate needs, there is one bathroom for hundreds of families, who wait in line for half an hour for a chance to use the toilet, which has no running water.

Unicef’s representative to Lebanon, Marcoluigi Corsi, warned last month that displacement would have lasting effects on the children. “This relentless cycle of bombardment and displacement is severely compounding their psychological scars, embedding deep-seated fear and threatening profound, long-term emotional harm,” said Corsi.

Ahmed said he has already seen some of these effects in his own children. When Israeli jets break the sound barrier or bomb Beirut, his son starts to run, trying to hide from a bomb he thinks will land on him.

Displaced children arrange a bouquet of flowers outside their tent in a carpark in Beirut’s waterfront area. Photograph: Ibrahim Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Ahmed himself is exhausted. He had to leave his wife and 17-year-old daughter in the hospital in Tyre after they were injured in the bombing of their house. He shows a picture of his comatose wife in a hospital bed, counting her ailments: Skull fractured in 33 places, internal bleeding, spinal injuries.

“They say she won’t make it,” Ahmed said, looking at his children. “The children are kept busy now, they’re playing. But when they come home and don’t find their mother there, it will be a disaster.”

Deaths, injuries and mourning in Palestine

Despite a ceasefire which is now more than five months old, health officials in Gaza say at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iranconflict began more than a month ago. The number of child fatalities is unclear but on 29 March Israeli airstrikes on checkpoints killed at least six Palestinians, including a girl, according to local rescue services.

The Gaza Strip has not recovered from 23 months of Israeli bombardment, which killed tens of thousands of people and destroyed hospitals and schools in what a UN investigation found to be a genocide. Up until October last year, an average of at least one Palestinian child was being killed every hour. The number of children killed by Israeli forces in its war on Gaza surpassed 20,000 late last year, according to Save the Children.

While the Iran war did not open a new front in Gaza, it has deepened insecurity and resulted in an intensification of ongoing Israeli military operations.

Displaced Palestinian children wait to refill canisters with water at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Closures and movement restrictions in Gaza triggered by the escalation have disrupted access to basic services, and forced some schools to close. Crossings into Gaza were shut for the first few days of the war, blocking humanitarian aid and commercial goods.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers and security forces have escalated their violence against Palestinians since the start of the Iran war, killing at least three children. On 15 March, Israeli police shot dead two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in Tamoun, firing at the family’s car as they returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.

Mohammed, five, and Othman, seven – who was blind and had special needs – were killed alongside their mother, Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father, Ali Bani Odeh, 37. Two other brothers survived. Khaled, 11, later said he had heard his mother crying and his father praying before they died. After the shooting, he said Israeli border police dragged him from the wreckage, taunted him and beat him. One officer told him: “We killed dogs,” Khaled said.

In Israel, at least four children have been killed by retaliatory Iranian missiles. One of the worst attacks occurred on 1 March, when an Iranian missile rocked the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.

‘No excuse’: Children as young as 12 guard checkpoints in Iran

Reports of children as young as 12 being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to guard security checkpoints have raised the alarm on the use of child soldiers.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report at the end of March saying the IRGC was conducting a campaign to recruit children to volunteer as “homeland defending combatants”.

On 26 March, a IRGC official in Tehran said a campaign to enlist civilians, called “Homeland Defending Combatants for Iran”, had set the minimum age at 12.

The poster for the recruitment drive features a boy and a girl alongside two adults, including a man in a military uniform.

The New York-based HRW said the military recruitment and use of children was a grave violation of children’s rights and a war crime when the children were under 15.

A young member of Iranian militia forces attending an anti-Israeli march in Tehran in January.Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

Bill Van Esveld, the associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said: “There is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children to sign up, much less 12-year-olds. What this boils down to is that Iranian authorities are apparently willing to risk children’s lives for some extra manpower.”

An 11-year-old Iranian boy had already reportedly been killed in an Israeli airstrike while at a security checkpoint. Alireza Jafari’s mother, Sadaf Monfared, told the municipality-run newspaper Hamshahri that he had been helping patrols and checkpoints run by the Basij, a volunteer militia under the command of the IRGC.

Van Esveld said: “The officials involved in this reprehensible policy are putting children at risk of serious and irreversible harm and themselves at risk of criminal liability. Senior leaders who fail to put a stop to this can make no claim to care for Iran’s children.”

Attacks on schools and a loss of education

The US bombing of a primary school in Minab on 28 February killed scores of people, most of them seven- to 12-year-old girls. The strike is the worst mass killing of the US-Israeli war against Iran so far, and has been described by Unesco as a “grave violation” of international law.

Relentless attacks across the region are destroying and damaging the facilities and infrastructure that children depend on, including hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation systems.

People digging graves for children killed in the strike on the primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province. Photograph: Iranian Press Centre/AFP/Getty Images

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said 316 medical centres and 763 schools had been severely damaged or destroyed by US-backed Israeli attacks.

These attacks, and the general violence, have shut down education. Save the Children said at least 52 million school-age children have had their education disrupted across the region, moving to online learning or having none at all.

Of the 669 collective shelters in Lebanon, 364 are public schools, according to Unicef. In Israel, schools have been repeatedly closed across much of the country.

Emergency personnel evacuate children from an impact site in Bnei Brak after Iran launched missiles towards Israel. Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters

Ahmad Alhendawi, the regional director for Middle East and north Africa and eastern Europe at Save the Children, said: “In every conflict, classrooms are usually the first to close and some of the last places to reopen. Every missed lesson deepens the scars of war. Not every child can escape the violence or afford to move their learning online; we know that for the most vulnerable children, once they leave school many will never return.”

He added: “Schools are protected sites and attacks on them could amount to grave breaches of international humanitarian law. The laws of war must be respected.”

The psychological toll

The bloodshed and upheaval has exposed children to traumatic events. Prolonged exposure to violence and instability is known to have lasting impacts on brain development, emotional regulation and long-term mental health.

A child injured in a strike is treated at Mofid children’s hospital in Tehran. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

While there has been a near total internet blackout in Iran, satellite TV stations are still beamed in and received. The London-based satellite channel Iran International has started broadcasting a segment between news bulletins that gives advice on how to deal with children’s fears and anxieties.

“Every war is a war on children,” said Alhendawi. “Children are living in fear, caught in the crossfire of this adult war,” he said. “Wars have laws and children must be off limits in every conflict.” 

7 Countries Where Black People Are Not Welcomed

 

BREAKING: EXPLOSIVE Epstein update SURGES into news

 

Israel passes death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks | Reuters (Isreal's Racist European Colonialism Continues)

Israel passes death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks

​

​

Maayan LubellMarch 30, 20269:20 AM EDTUpdated March 30, 2026

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Reuters) - Israel's parliament passed a law on Monday making death by hanging a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks, fulfilling a pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies.

The law would only apply to Israelis convicted of murder whose attacks aimed at "ending Israel's existence", meaning it would mete out the death penalty for Palestinians but not for Jewish Israelis who committed similar crimes, critics ‌say.

The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here.

The legislation has drawn international criticism of Israel, which is already under scrutiny for increasing violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and its war in Gaza.

NO RIGHT TO CLEMENCY

The measure includes provisions requiring an execution by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with some allowance for a delay but no right to clemency. It provides the option of imposing a life imprisonment sentence instead of capital punishment, but only in unspecified "special circumstances".

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only person executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.

Military courts in the West Bank can already sentence Palestinian convicts to death but have not done so.

The measure was promoted by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister who wore noose-shaped lapel pins in the run-up to the vote.

"This is a day of justice for ⁠the murdered, a day of deterrence for enemies," Ben-Gvir said in parliament. "Whoever chooses terror chooses death."

PALESTINIANS REJECT LAW, SOME CALL FOR ATTACKS

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the legislation as a breach of international law and a doomed bid meant to intimidate Palestinians.

"Such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness," Abbas' office said in a statement.

"Nor will they deter them from continuing their legitimate struggle for freedom, independence, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians to launch attacks in revenge for the law.

CRITICS SAY BILL IS DISCRIMINATORY

Israel's leading rights groups decried the law as "an act of institutionalized discrimination and racist violence against Palestinians." The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said it filed an appeal against the law with Israel's Supreme Court.

[1/3]Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025 REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon Purchase Licensing Rights

The law is the latest action by Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition to raise concern among Israel's Western allies, who have also been critical of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

In an effort to head off international backlash, Netanyahu asked for some elements of the legislation to be softened, Israeli media reported. He voted in favour of the bill, which won the backing of 62 of the Knesset's 120 members.

The original bill had mandated the death sentence for non-Israeli citizens convicted in West ‌Bank military courts ⁠of deadly terrorist acts. The revised legislation includes the option of life imprisonment.

In Israel's civilian courts, the new legislation mandates either life imprisonment or the death penalty for anyone convicted of "deliberately causing the death of a person with the intent of ending Israel's existence."

Critics of the bill say that language effectively confines those Israelis who can be sentenced to death to members of the country's 20% Arab minority, many of whom identify as Palestinian, and not to Jewish citizens.

Even before the vote, the bill drew criticism from the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Britain, who said it had a "de facto discriminatory" character toward Palestinians and undermines Israel's democratic principles.

A group of U.N. experts said the bill includes vague definitions of "terrorist", meaning the death penalty could be ⁠meted out over "conduct that is not genuinely terrorist".

Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party argues that the death penalty will deter Palestinians from carrying out deadly attacks against Israelis or attempting kidnappings with the aim of affecting swap deals for Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons.

Amnesty International, which tracks countries imposing death penalty laws, says there "is no evidence that the death penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment".

Professionals in Israel's legal establishment argued the bill was unconstitutional, increasing the likelihood of the Supreme Court striking ⁠down the law.

GLOBAL TREND ON DEATH PENALTY IS TOWARD ABOLITION

Some 54 countries around the world permit the death penalty, including a handful of democracies such as the United States and Japan, according to Amnesty International. The group says the global trend is toward abolition, with 113 countries having outlawed it.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem says military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96% conviction rate and a history of extracting confessions through ⁠torture.

Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and support for the Kach group on the Israeli and U.S. terrorism blacklists, has overseen an overhaul of prisons that has led to allegations of abuse of Palestinian prisoners.

He made capital punishment for Palestinian militants a main pledge in his 2022 election campaign and since taking office has publicly backed some Israeli soldiers being probed for suspected excessive force against Palestinians.

The next national election is due in October 2026.

Reporting by Pesha Magid and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; editing by Rami Ayyub, William Maclean and Stephen Coates"

Israel passes death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks | Reuters