Brazil: Bolsonaro's VP Running Mate Calls Africans 'Dirt-Bags'

Brazilian military general Hamilton Mourao, vice presidential running mate of presidential hopeful Jair Bolsonaro, referred to Africans as "dirt-bag scum" during a speech at the Housing Union (Secovi) in Sao Paulo on Monday.

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Criticizing foreign policy initiatives towards the African continent during the presidencies of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, both members of the Workers' Party (PT), Mourao said the South American giant had adopted a "diplomacy called South-South. From that point on we were involved with all that "dirt-bag scum, please excuse the term...which resulted in nothing except debt incurred. We're in default because of this."

Questioned about why he chose to use the term "dirt-bag scum," Mourao responded, "so that the crowd in the auditorium will be happier. Was it not those (African) countries that didn't produce a return on the investment we made on them? That's all."

During his eight-year presidency, Lula visited 27 African countries on 12 different occasions, more than all of his predecessors combined, and often spoke of his country's "historic debt" to the millions of Africans forcibly brought to Brazil and made to work as slaves for centuries, according to the BBC.

Having made Africa a foreign policy priority during his government, Lula once told a crowd at the Mozambican National Institute of Distance Learning that "Brazilian people are what they are —happy, beautiful, full of swing, samba, carnival and football loving — because of our miscegenation and the extraordinary mix between Africans, indigenous peoples and Europeans. This, in fact, should be our strength compared to the rest of the world, but because we had our minds colonized for centuries, we were taught that we were inferior."

"When we make a choice for Africa, we want to stand up and lift our heads together. We want to build together a future in which the South is not weaker than the North, not dependent on the North, a future in which, if we believe in ourselves, we can be just as important and as smart as they are."

General Antonio Mourao is known for his outlandish and dangerous comments. He warned last September that the military could seize power if Brazil's courts do not punish corrupt politicians. Mourao was later removed from his post as the army's finance chief after similar remarks that the military could step in in the event of chaos in Brazil.

Going into Brazil's most wide-open presidential election in decades, Bolsonaro, running as a candidate for the small Social Liberty Party (PSL), has also pegged much of his candidacy on controversial remarks, whether defending the past military dictatorship or suggesting acts of violence against homosexuals.