The episode prompted a group of female diplomats to raise the nearly $15,000 the woman needed for reconstructive surgery.

Violence against women is endemic in Brazil, but there has not been a widespread public reckoning of powerful men here.

While public servants in Brazil enjoy significant job security, several colleagues wondered why Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, known as Itamaraty, didn’t act sooner to oust Viana, who was fired Wednesday.

The Association of Brazilian Diplomats said in a statement that it had expressed its concerns about Viana to the Foreign Ministry several times.

“Valuing and respecting women are fundamental values of this organization,” the group said in the statement. “We will be vigilant to demand that episodes of this nature are punished severely.”

Dênia Magalhães, Viana’s lawyer, said her client denied both the new and the past accusations.

Brazil’s foreign minister said in public notice that Viana had been fired after disciplinary proceedings. An Itamaraty spokesman declined to respond to questions about the case.

Viana, 42, has been in the foreign service since the late 1990s and had served in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Caracas, Venezuela, among other postings.

According to news accounts, police responded to Viana’s apartment after a woman screamed for help from a window. Police officials in Brasília said Viana had been charged with physical assault and domestic violence.

Magalhães said Viana was trying to restrain the woman after she had a “psychotic break.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Ernesto Londoño and Manuela Andreoni © 2018 The New York Times