São Paulo

A Paraguayan senator suffered impeachment on Thursday (28) after the release of videos in which he defended the death of 100,000 Brazilians living in the country and attacked local police.

In a cell phone recording on Monday (25), Paraguayo Cubas, 57, addresses a group of people on a roadside in the town of Minga Porá, next to a truck loaded with timber.

He asks if the wood came from a "rapai" resort, an informal term used in Brazil to refer to Brazilians. With the affirmative answer, it begins to roar.

Paraguayo Cubas (FOTO: @senadopy no Twitter)

"Brazilian bandits, bandits! Invaders! Now deforesting the country," he shouts. "At least 100,000 Brazilians must be killed here," he continued, mentioning that 2 million Brazilians are living in the country. The Brazilian government estimates that there are 350 thousand.

The region where the video was recorded in the Department of Alto Paraná, near the Brazilian border, is a soy producer and has several logging projects.

The shipment that motivated the senator's rage was regularized and had no direct relationship with any Brazilian producer.

A second video shot shortly after that caused even more controversy in the country.

In it, the senator attacks against police who, according to him, are protecting the Brazilians.

He takes the key out of the car, kicks the car, and even slaps an unresponsive police officer. Then, furious and cursing, he hurls a vase on the floor of a police station.

The videos sparked a reaction in the Paraguayan government and Senate. The Interior Ministry criticized Cubas' attitude, and the Senate filed a lawsuit. Senators apologized to Brazilians for their colleague's statements.

On Thursday afternoon, the impeachment was approved by 23 votes in favor, one against and three abstentions.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

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