A comedian and YouTuber is being investigated for gender-based violence after calling a female politician an idiot, comparing her to a mollusk and referring to her as mamacita, a word that generally means “cute chick.”

The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) opened an investigation into José Manuel Torres Morales, better known as Chumel Torres, after Bertha Alicia Caraveo Camarena, a senator for Chihuahua with the ruling Morena party, made a legal complaint against him in February.

Torres made the comments on his internet show El Pulso de la República (The Pulse of the Republic), reacting to a Senate speech by Caraveo in which she expressed her support for President López Obrador’s son and his wife after they were criticized for their opulent lifestyle: “All my support and solidarity to José Ramón López Beltrán and his family. And also I’ll tell you: it was, is and will always be an honor to stand by [President] Obrador,” Caraveo said.

Torres interpreted the senator’s words as flattery, and made those feelings plain. “This idiot, I mean moron, is Bertha Caraveo from Chihuahua … just crawl a bit more, be a bit slimier and you’ll grow a shell,” he said.

“Just kiss ass a bit more and you’ll burn your tongue on the president. You’re supposed to be from Chihuahua, mamacita. I’m from Chihuahua and your bullshit doesn’t represent me. You don’t love Mexico, you love López Obrador. Can I tell her to fuck off, or is it a bit strong? Fuck off!” Torres said.

Caraveo wrote on Twitter to confirm that the FGR had opened an investigation and claimed that public prosecutors recognize her “as a victim in accordance with the General Law of Victims for his sexist violence.”

“I’ll continue until dignity becomes customary,” the senator added, and also noted an occasion on which a National Action Party deputy used “crude and unacceptable insults” against her.

Torres reacted to the announcement by saying the investigation demonstrated that freedom of expression was non-existent, before adding that his Chihuahua heritage made him battle ready. “I’m neither sad nor worried because I’m from Chihuahua. I’m from the desert … we walk miles for our cattle to graze; we work all day under the hottest bitch of a sun in the country,” he said.

The comedian added that his internet show would be impossible to silence. “The Pulso de la República is a hydra: if you cut off his head he grows seven more,” he said.

With reports from El Universal