RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A video showing a Paraguayan senator advocating the death of 100,000 Brazilians living in Paraguay prompted a reaction from local political circles.
In a recording made on a cell phone last Monday, November 25th, Paraguayan Senator Cubas Colomes, 57, addresses a group of people on the side of a road in the city of Minga Porá, next to a truck loaded with wood.
He asks if the wood came from a “rapai,” an informal term used in the country to refer to Brazilians. With the affirmative answer, he begins to shout.
“Brazilian criminals, criminals! Invaders! Now deforesting the country,” he shouts. “You have to kill at least 100,000 Brazilian criminals here,” he continues, mentioning that there are two million Brazilians living in the country. Brazil claims there are only 300,000.
Colomes then asks for “walls” for Brazilians who do not have “windbreakers”.
The term refers to a forest management technique that consists of planting trees, usually eucalyptus, to isolate soybean crops. The aim is to prevent the wind from carrying pesticides to smaller properties in the vicinity of large planted areas.
The region where the video was recorded, in the Department of Alto Paraná, near the border with Brazil, is a soy producer. Most of the properties are owned by Brazilians who migrated to the neighboring country decades ago, known as ‘brasiguaios’ (“braziguayans”).
A second video, filmed shortly after, sparked even greater controversy in the country. In it, the senator attacks police officers who, according to him, are protecting Brazilians. He kicks a car and even slaps a police officer, who refuses to react. Then, furious and cursing, he hurls a vase on the ground.
The videos prompted a reaction in the Paraguayan Senate, which discusses the possibility of punishing the senator. Senators apologized to the Brazilians for their colleague’s statements.
Colomes is a repeat offender. A few months ago, he was suspended for hurling a glass of water at a colleague during an argument.
He is a member of the National Crusade Movement party, a small party whose main goal is to fight corruption and foreign presence in Paraguay, both of which are strongly populist in their appeal.
In addition to Brazilians, he targets other immigrants from South American countries. He also attacks members of the influential Mennonite community, a Protestant current that migrated from Canada and Mexico in the 20th century and works in agricultural colonies.
A former federal deputy, he behaves in the Senate independently from President Mario Abdo Benítez’s government.
The Brazilian government is monitoring the case and is considering some formal action to protest against the senator. The shipment of wood that motivated the senator’s rage was legalized and would have no direct relationship with any Brazilian producer.
The reporter contacted the senator’s office and asked for an interview with him, but there was no reply until its publication.
Source: Folhapress