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Spanish airline discriminates against Peruvian politicians

12:19 H | Topics: Controversia - Peru - Race - Spain

It seems that Spanish airline Iberia has some 'splaining to do...as to why two Peruvian parlamentarians were the target of what can only be regarded as racist and xenophobic comments on the part of Iberia staff at Lima's airport.

Peruvian congresswomen Hilaria Supa and Maria Sumire, both members of the oppositional UPP-PNP alliance, complained they have been the target of discrimination by Spanish airline Iberia. The incident obviously happened on Saturday evening at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport.

According to Sumire's version given to CPN Radio, both legislators arrived at Iberia's check-in counter to board the 8:55 p.m. flight to Madrid.

However, they were told the airplane was full and there was no alternative for a later flight that night.

Sumire maintained that despite purchasing the tickets in advance, airline personnel made them wait unnecessarily while servicing other customers first. After the congresswomen started to complain about this disadvantage, an airline employee apparently answered something that roughly translates to "how can you be congresswomen if you don't even know how to speak the language? Obviously you don't speak Spanish very well, so complain all you want".

Um, she said what?! Yet another reason not to fly Iberia. While Spain seems to be the most progressive country in Europe, it appears that some of the people hired by its national airline are not. Which begs the question: was the employee a Spaniard or a racist Peruvian?

Via / Living in Peru

Image via Perfil.com

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