A series of racist incidents involving Argentine tourists in Brazil has reignited debate about Argentina's national identity and its long-standing pride in its European heritage. The latest case involves a seven-year-old boy who was secretly filmed by an Argentine tourist on a train in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The tourist, Eduardo Ignacio Murias, 63, an architect from Santiago del Estero, allegedly wrote under the photos: “He’s Black but very cute. I could take him as a slave. I’m thinking of taking a slave, there are many here.” Murias was arrested for “racial insult”, a crime under Brazilian law.
Murias is the third Argentine to be arrested for racism in Brazil this year, amid a surge in Argentine tourism to the country. In April, José Luis Haile, 67, was arrested after allegedly directing racist insults at a food delivery worker in Rio de Janeiro. In January, Agostina Páez, 29, was arrested in Rio after being filmed mimicking a monkey towards a waiter at a nightclub. Although later released, she was barred from leaving Brazil for two and a half months. Upon her return to Argentina, she was welcomed by far-right senator Patricia Bullrich, a close ally of President Javier Milei. Her father was later filmed imitating a monkey to celebrate her return.
Political scientist and African-Argentinian activist Federico Pita said the incidents were unsurprising given Argentina’s long history of racism. “Racism is inscribed within the very project of the Argentine nation. Argentina is constitutionally a supremacist country,” he said, citing Article 25 of the constitution, which states: “The federal government shall promote European immigration.” Pita argued that Argentina continues to see itself as a “European” country while denying the existence of African-Argentinians and Indigenous peoples, who according to the 2022 census make up about 1% and 3% of the population respectively. Activists and researchers believe these figures are underestimates, with most of the population having Indigenous ancestry.
In March, Argentina was the only Latin American country to vote against a UN resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity”. The US and Israel were the only other countries to oppose the measure. Although slavery was abolished in Argentina in 1853, the descendants of enslaved Africans and their influence on the country’s culture remain. Pita noted that comparisons with Brazil are complex, as Black Brazilians make up a far larger share of the population but also experience disproportionately high levels of poverty, police violence and social exclusion.
