\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Agostina P\u00e1ez, an Argentine tourist currently facing a racism charge in Brazil, returned to her home province of Santiago del Estero on Thursday after paying nearly US$19,000 in bail, while she awaits a judge\u2019s verdict in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n
P\u00e1ez, a 29-year-old lawyer, had been under house arrest in Brazil since mid-January for making racist gestures at a group of men, a scene which was caught on camera. According to P\u00e1ez, one of the men had made obscene gestures at her moments before during an argument over a bar bill.<\/p>\n
The men reported her for inj\u00faria racial, a serious racism offense in Brazil, and she was facing up to 15 years in prison. However, after an agreement between the plaintiffs, the prosecutors\u2019 office and her defense team, the judge agreed to allow her to await her potential sentence in Argentina.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have requested a two-year prison sentence, which could be replaced with community service to be carried out in Argentina, as well as a fine of around US$50,000 for each victim. The judge is expected to announce his decision in two to three weeks.<\/p>\n
P\u00e1ez arrived in Santiago del Estero on Thursday, where she will await the judge\u2019s final decision.<\/p>\n
The day before, she flew from Rio to Buenos Aires accompanied by her Brazilian lawyer Carla Junqueira. Speaking with the swarm of reporters who were waiting for her at the airport, she said that she was \u201cvery relieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis nightmare is over. I regret having reacted badly, despite the context,\u201d she said, referring to her gestures. However, she added: \u201cI reacted to obscene gestures, women will understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00e1ez recently apologized for her actions in a video posted to her personal Instagram. She also apologized directly to the victims during a hearing last week. P\u00e1ez said she hadn\u2019t apologized earlier because she was advised against it by her former lawyer.<\/p>\n
While the judge could accept the prosecutors\u2019 request and sentence her to two years of community service, he could also sentence her to five years of prison \u2014 the maximum punishment for the crime \u2014 or even acquit her.<\/p>\n
During the brief hours she spent in Buenos Aires, P\u00e1ez met with libertarian senator and former security minister Patricia Bullrich. \u201cI am so happy you are here,\u201d Bullrich told her in a video uploaded to her social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been great work from her lawyers, the unconditional support of her family and the backing of the government,\u201d Bullrich wrote in her post. \u201cThere is only one important thing: that she is here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me junt\u00e9 con Agostina antes de que vuelva a su casa con su familia.<\/p>\n
Hubo un gran trabajo de sus abogados, el acompa\u00f1amiento incondicional de su familia y el apoyo del Gobierno. Y s\u00ed, a pesar de algunas manos sucias e interesadas, volvi\u00f3.<\/p>\n
Hoy hay una sola cosa importante: que\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Aa3rqIJCAT<\/p>\n
\u2014 Patricia Bullrich (@PatoBullrich) April 2, 2026 \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agostina P\u00e1ez, an Argentine tourist currently facing a racism charge in Brazil, returned to her home province of Santiago del Estero on Thursday after paying nearly US$19,000 in bail, while she awaits a judge\u2019s verdict in Rio de Janeiro. P\u00e1ez, a 29-year-old lawyer, had been under house arrest in Brazil since mid-January for making racist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9288,474,151],"tags":[9287,4246,135],"class_list":["post-49082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agostina-paez","category-patricia-bullrich","category-society","tag-agostina-paez","tag-patricia-bullrich","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}