Argentine tourist accused of racism will not have to serve jail time, Brazil judge rules

A Brazilian judge ruled that Argentine lawyer Agostina Páez, who was accused of racism while visiting Rio de Janeiro in mid-January, will not have to serve jail time and will be able to return to her country. Páez was accused of three racism charges that are punishable with up to 15 years in prison. However, she was found guilty of only one charge, and was sentenced to two years of suspended jail time, in addition to community work to be carried out in Argentina, and the payment of a fine. The latter is estimated to be around US$50,000 for each of the three victims, although the judge will confirm the figure in the upcoming days. He will also establish the conditions for the woman to return to Argentina. Páez, a 29-year-old lawyer from Santiago del Estero, was charged with injúria racial, a classification that reflects Brazil’s zero-tolerance approach to racial discrimination, shaped by the country’s long history of racial inequality and violence. Carla Junqueira, Páez’s defense attorney, said that she was expecting her client to get at least two years of jail time in Argentina, but that changed after the woman publicly apologized. “The prosecutor acknowledged that Agostina’s apology meant that she understood what racism means in Brazil,” Junqueira told the press on Tuesday following a hearing in which Páez’s situation was resolved. “Now we are waiting for the paperwork so that her return [to Argentina] can happen.” Páez was arrested in mid-January in Rio de Janeiro following an argument with staff members at a club. According to the complaint filed by the three employees, Páez directed racist insults at them during a dispute over the bill. She was also filmed using gestures considered deeply offensive in Brazil. Páez has stated in public interviews and in videos posted by herself that she reacted like that after one of the men made obscene gestures at her, but said she regrets it and understands that her actions were a serious offense. “I told the judge the truth the whole time. I’ve apologized to the alleged victims. It was the worst experience of my life, and I feel relieved,” Páez told the press after the hearing, in which the three men were also present and gave their version of the story. She added that they accepted her apologies. The woman said she “will not be at peace” until she is back in Argentina and that she is “still being threatened.” Before the hearing, Páez had expressed great concern about being sentenced to jail. “I will not step foot in a prison. If I go to jail, I will kill myself. I don’t know what could happen to me,” she said. Negotiations and crossfire Páez’s situation improved after she posted a video making a public apology, something she said was recommended by Junqueira. Her previous lawyer, she said, had advised against it. Her release was celebrated on X by Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, who said that he and his team had been in contact with Páez and her family “since the first day,” working alongside her defense lawyers, as part of “a judicial coordination framework between Argentina and Brazil.” The Argentine foreign ministry, he said, had filed a note to guarantee the judicial process was carried out in Argentina. “This has contributed for the judge to accept that she complies with her sentence in our country,” Quirno said. However, deputy Marcela Pagano, a former member of ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza, said in a separate post that Javier Milei’s government had “abandoned” the young woman, and that her release was secured thanks to her efforts and those of former Argentine President Alberto Fernández, who has a good relationship with Brazil’s President Lula Da Silva. In recent months, Pagano was involved in the negotiations that led to the release of Argentine military police officer Nahuel Gallo, who spent over a year detained in Venezuela under espionage accusations. Gallo returned to Argentina on March 1.