Zazá Pecego #

Introduction #

Zazá Pecego is a Brazilian fashion stylist who was working as a senior stylist at Vogue Brasil when a single Instagram post ended her career at the magazine. On September 11, 2025 — one day after the assassination of the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university event in Utah — Pecego shared an image bearing the English-language phrase “I love when fascists die in agony.” The post, which she later said referred to the criminal conviction of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and not to Kirk, became the target of a campaign by congressman Nikolas Ferreira, who demanded her dismissal. On Friday, September 12, 2025, Vogue Brasil confirmed that she had been let go.

Background Information #

Pecego held a senior styling position at Vogue Brasil, the Brazilian edition of the fashion magazine owned by the Condé Nast group and described in Brazilian media as one of the most influential fashion publications in the world. The post that cost her the job was made in a highly charged week in two countries at once. Kirk, a prominent American conservative organizer, was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at a Utah university. The very next day, September 11, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court convicted Bolsonaro of coup plot charges arising from the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília — a ruling his supporters mourned and his opponents openly celebrated. Pecego’s post, published the day of that conviction, sat squarely inside this collision of American and Brazilian political shocks.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On September 11, 2025, Pecego shared an image on her Instagram account containing the phrase “I love when fascists die in agony,” rendered in Portuguese by Brazilian outlets as “Eu amo quando fascistas morrem em agonia.” Because it appeared barely a day after Kirk was gunned down, it was immediately read by many as gloating over his death. The post drew the attention of federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira of the Liberal Party (PL-MG), a bolsonarista lawmaker who was campaigning against profiles he accused of celebrating Kirk’s murder. He publicly demanded that Vogue dismiss her and urged his followers to press the same demand, asking whether the magazine was aware that employees like Pecego celebrate the assassination of innocents for freely expressing their ideas. Hundreds of users then flooded the magazine’s posts with calls for her firing.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The pressure campaign worked with remarkable speed. On Friday, September 12, Vogue Brasil confirmed the dismissal in a brief statement that did not detail its reasons. The magazine, without naming her case, published a general statement on Instagram holding that freedom of expression cannot cross the border of respect and that divergent opinions must not disrespect the life and physical integrity of any person. Pecego did not dispute writing the post, but insisted it had been deliberately misread. In statements published on September 16 and 17, she said the phrase was part of a sequence of stories about Bolsonaro’s conviction, posted minutes apart, and was a metaphor for what the former president represents — not a reference to Kirk, whose name she said she had never mentioned and whose death she said she had never celebrated. She added that she did not regret her political position and repudiated any form of violence used to silence democratic debate. She also said the backlash had turned dangerous: hundreds of racist attacks, threats of sexual violence, the leaking of her and her family’s personal data, and her need to move to a temporary place of safety.

Current Status #

Pecego was dismissed from Vogue Brasil on September 12, 2025, and the magazine has publicly confirmed the firing, though without explaining its decision. As of the most recent reporting available, she has not announced a new role in fashion, and her public statements since the dismissal have been devoted to defending herself against the accusation that she celebrated Kirk’s death — an accusation she flatly rejects, maintaining that her post concerned Bolsonaro’s conviction and that she did not know who Kirk was when she wrote it.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The professional cost was immediate and severe. Pecego lost a senior post at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion titles within roughly twenty-four hours of publishing the post, after a demand from one of Brazil’s most prominent bolsonarista lawmakers. Beyond the job loss, the fallout reached into her personal safety: she described enduring hundreds of racist attacks and threats of sexual violence, having her and her family’s data leaked, and being forced to seek a temporary safe place to stay. Her case became one of the international examples of people losing their jobs over online comments connected to Kirk’s assassination, and it illustrates how quickly a social media post can be swept from a local political context into a global news cycle. Whatever one makes of her stated intent, the episode ended her Vogue Brasil career, made her a national name in Brazil, and left her publicly defending both her politics and her character.