The General Directorate of Information and Police Intelligence investigates the raising of racist flags on the balcony of an apartment located on Gabriel Pereyra street, in the Pocitos neighborhood (Montevideo). A Complaint for hate speech is made before the Ministry of the Interior, and the investigation is ongoing, reported MVD News (TV Ciudad) and confirmed ministerial sources to The Observer.
The flags are linked to racism and white supremacy. One of them is the old flag of South Africa, which symbolizes the regime of racial segregation of the apartheid.
The other is the official flag of the Confederate States of America, known as the Stars and Stripes. One of the most remembered images of his exhibition in recent times was when one of the men who entered the United States Capitol during the assault on January 6, 2021 (when Joe Biden’s electoral victory was certified in a session) carried that badge. Those who criticize its use indicate that it is a racist symbol of oppression and white supremacy, representing the war to maintain slavery.
In Uruguay, the legislation provides, in its article 149 bis of the Penal Code, the crime of inciting hatred, contempt or violence towards certain people. It states: “Whoever publicly or through any means suitable for public dissemination incites hatred, contempt, or any form of moral or physical violence against one or more people because of the color of their skin, their race, religion, national origin or ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, will be punished with three to eighteen months in prison”.
