The Ultimate Boxing Match: Congressmen of Latin America

Every once in a blue moon, we Americans are reminded of the drama unfolding in our own congress and our capital.

Back when I was a teenager, it involved Rand Paul doing stints like this.

But it does seem like, despite the crazier shit that happened a decade ago, that our politics are becoming a little bit crazier by the year.

With some funny stuff that happens still every so often!

Regardless of your opinions on any of the political drama nowadays, the crazier it all gets does remind me of the political drama that sometimes happens in Latin America.

Because Latin America, as we all know, isn’t immune to a political crisis either.

Of course, when I mention “Latin America” and “political crisis” in the same sentence, we all think of dictatorships and whatnot.

Well, I could do that here but I figured to take it from a different angle given we already have enough information gathered online regarding dictatorships, coups and all.

Instead, while on the topic of congress, how about we discuss interesting examples of congressmen in Latin America going at it?

Mano a Mano?

Or, in cases we’ll see, bullet to bullet.

Let’s get to it!

A Murder in the Brazilian Congress

In 1963, there was a murder in the Brazilian Congress.

From what I understand, there was a senator named Arnon de Mello who shot a gun at some political opponent but the bullets ended up killing another person instead.

The victim was someone known as Jose Kairala.

However, the bullets were intended to hit another senator known as Silvestre Péricles de Góes Monteiro.

Silvestre and Arnon both had a political rivalry for more influence in the Brazilian state of Alagoas.

Anyway, from what I could understand, Arnon apparently gave some speech in the Congress that provoked tension between the two.

As a result, Silvestre began arguing with Arnon.

Which provoked Arnon to pull out a Smith Wesson 38.

Apparently none of the bullets hit as Silvestre fell to the ground crawling away between armchairs.

As I said, the bullets instead hit another Senator known as Jose Kairala.

For those who read Portuguese better than I do, here’s the original story.

Shitting in the Office of a Paraguayan Judge

Next, we have a peculiar Paraguayan dude who seems to have been both a journalist and a member of the Paraguayan senate.

Someone known as Payo Cubas.

To keep it short, there seems to be a laundry list of weird shit (no pun intended) that this dude has done in Paraguay.

The more famous example being when he took a shit in the office of a judge in Paraguay as you can see here.

But there’s more!

This dude has also apparently threatened to burn down the legislative headquarters as you can see here.

And he also had a physical altercation with the police as you can see here.

Including also engaging in other behavior like damaging private property and even threatening to “kill 100,000 Brazilians.”

Hmmm…Well, the last time a Paraguayan threatened Brazil, it didn’t work out well.

Just ask Francisco Solano López.

Joking aside…

In the end, the dude ended up getting his pay sanctioned for 60 days as you can see here after they simply got tired of his shenanigans.

Fight in the Mexican Congress

Roughly a year ago in 2020, you had an incident in the Mexican Congress regarding a proposal by the MORENA party to eliminate 109 trusts.

And how, from what I can understand, the opposition parties took a stand against this proposal since they claim it can be used for things like addressing natural disasters and other purposes.

Consequently, the legislators began insulting each other after the opposition took the stand against it.

And, as you can guess, they began fighting.

Here is a video showing the incident that occurred that day where a large group of congressmen began beating each other Fight Club style.

Who won the fight?

I’m not sure but my bet is, if the PRI was involved, they’d win.

After all, they have a much longer time period in Mexican politics.

More time in office means more experience punching other congressmen in the face, right?

Enjoy the video anyhow.

Pablo Escobar is in the House

Of course, we can’t discuss mayhen in Latin America without bringing up Pablo Escobar, can we?

The classic example!

As you can watch in this documentary here, there was a time in which Pablo Escobar tried to gain more political influence in Colombia.

The objective was to primarily change the law in Colombia so that Colombian nationals like him can’t be extradited to the US.

He also wanted to be beloved by people in Colombia as he sought more political influence and even began providing investment to poor people in the country.

But, from my understanding, that investment was primarily done to create a more positive image of himself in the country so that way he’d be less likely to be extradited.

As the documentary here explains, the main fear with being extradited as that Escobar wouldn’t be able to bribe judges out of any legal punishment in the US.

But, in Colombia, he very much could or had people killed if they wouldn’t cooperate.

Something we saw soon after 1982 when Pablo Escobar was elected an as alternate to the Colombian senate.

On the first day that he was elected, he was denounced by the Minister of Justice known as Rodrigo Lara for being a criminal.

Soon after, there was more reporting on Escobar’s criminal activities in the press and public opinion of him apparently goes south.

Consequently, Pablo Escobar is “banished from the political scene” and some of his assets were “seized.”

Months after Lara’s public denouncement, he was followed and killed by one of Escobar’s hitmen.

The hitmen followed the vehicle that Lara was in on a motorcycle and shot a ton of bullets at him.

The risk to his life was well known though before this incident.

Apparently the US State Department warned him and even gave him a bullet proof vest.

But, on the day he was shot to death, the bullet proof vest was found by his side not even used inside the vehicle he was shot in.

Though, as the documentary here says, the vest wouldn’t have likely saved his life given the amount of bullets that hit him.

Anything Else?

Of course, those are just 4 examples.

From crazy Paraguayan politicians pooping in an office to dangerous drug lords being expelled from congress to congressmen hitting and shooting each other.

But there’s plenty more examples that could’ve been brought up!

Like this one here of a congressman who got murdered in Argentina.

To these congressmen in Venezuela going at it like the Mexican example above Fight Club style as you can see here.

Among all the other examples out there of crazy political folks doing crazy shit down here.

Got any examples yourself?

Drop them below in the comment section.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt