The councillor was gunned down on March 14, 2018 with her driver, Anderson Gomes, after participating in a black women’s event in central Rio de Janeiro. Despite the arrest of two defendants, for his family and other human rights activists, political crime has no justice.
She was a member of the Socialism and Freedom Party and was elected councillor in the Municipal Chamber of the city of Rio de Janeiro. A fervent critique of the federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro, on March 10, 2018, he had reported policemen from the 41st Military Police Battalion for abuses of authority against the inhabitants of the Acari favela. A day before she was killed, she wondered on the social network Twitter, in one of her last tweets, about the death of a young man (Matheus Melo): “How many more must die before this war ends?” The who and why of his murder remain unresolved, an attack that his sister Anielle describes as the “first female assassination in the history of Brazil”. She was only 38 when she was killed. There have been few answers.
Marielle Franco was a sociologist, councillor and work for the rights of those most in need, those of black women and young people in the favelas, and also for those of the LGTBIQ+ population.
The Port legislature on Thursday passed a resolution to place a plaque, in the Rio de Janeiro station of the underground network, to pay homage to Brazilian politics.
So far there are only two prisoners for the crime: Ronnie Lessa, retired officer of the Militarized Police and accused of firing the weapon that killing the councillor, and Elcio Vieira de Queiroz, a former agent expelled for his ties to criminals and accused of driving the car from which the murder was carried out. Adriano Magalhaes da Nóbrega, a third suspect was being investigated for the case and had ties to the family of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Known as “Captain Adriano”, a member of the Police until 2014 and later turned into a hired gunman and militia chief in Rio, was awarded in 2005 with the main decoration granted by the Regional Legislative Assembly at the request of Flávio Bolsonaro, senator and son of the representative. Tribute to Marielle in Argentina
“This March 14 marks three years after the murder, of the political crime of Marielle Franco, the concege in practice of Rio de Janeiro, feminist, lesbian, black and favela,” Front of All (FdT) DEPUTY Maria Bielli, author of the resolution, said at the session. He added that Franco was “shot dead after leaving political activity in rio de Janeiro city centre and against a back-and-coming back in institutional violence.” Bielli also stated that “Marielle is the embodiment of the discourse against the militarization of the favelas, and had been appointed as rapporteur on the commission to monitor military intervention in the city of Rio de Janeiro.” Bielli’s project also envisages that the plaque includes a QR code that tells the story of Marielle Franco, who was 38 when she was killed. On the basis of the resolution, Ms Bielli recalls that two people were arrested in 2019 for Franco’s murder, but argues that the question “who sent her to kill?” remains unanswered.
