Brazilian police detain alleged masterminds in the death of iconic councilwoman

The police in Brazil has arrested two men who are believed to have ordered the killing of a well-liked councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. People have been asking for justice for a long time, so this arrest is a big step.

The killing of Marielle Franco, a 38-year-old Black, bisexual city councilwoman in a shooting from a moving car, greatly affected Brazil and was felt around the world.

The police found out that a government official and his brother were arrested because they are suspected of planning an attack on someone named Franco. Both are said to be associated with gangs that charge people for protection and other services illegally.

Ubiratan Guedes, the lawyer for Domingos Brazúo, said his client is not guilty of the accusations. “He said he didn’t know Marielle and had no connection with her,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Attorneys for Chiquinho Brazúo and Rivaldo Barbosa said their clients did not do anything wrong, as reported by the local media. Chiquinho Brazúo was on Rio’s council and is now a congressman, and Rivaldo Barbosa is a former police chief.

Brazil’s Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said that the reason for the crime is difficult to understand because the Brazúos group has many different interests. He mentioned that investigations have indicated that the politician Chiquinho Brazúo was particularly angry about a bill that his former colleague Franco proposed at the city council regarding the regulation of land for public housing in Rio.

The minister said we know who did this terrible crime and it is related to politics. He also said that four other people had their documents taken. He said that one of them is a police detective named Giniton Lages who also looked into the case. Lewandowski also said that the men who were put in jail before will be moved from Rio to the main city Brasilia.

The men who might have ordered Franco’s killing were arrested four days after Brazil’s Supreme Court approved a deal for the person who shot her. He was arrested with the driver in 2019.

The investigation into Franco’s murder had been problematic for many years. The police in Rio couldn’t solve the case even after they arrested and charged the shooter and the driver. The main detectives were replaced four times before February 2023. The government tried to take over the case, but they weren’t allowed to. This made people think someone was trying to stop the investigation. Lewandowski said this.

The driver confessed to killing Franco and her driver. The person who shot, a former police officer named Ronnie Lessa, made a deal with the police in January and his confession led to the arrests on Sunday.

Barbosa, the person in charge of Rio’s police when the murder happened, was arrested for supposedly getting in the way of the investigation, federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues said in a press conference.

“He tried hard to steer the investigation away from the people who ordered the killing,” Rodrigues said. Before, Franco’s wife Monica Benicio said Barbosa expressed his condolences to her after her wife was killed, and promised to work hard to find the people responsible.

In 2008, Franco worked as an assistant to Marcelo Freixo, who was a lawmaker at that time. Freixo was leading a special committee looking into militias in Rio’s state assembly. Freixo’s last report said that 226 people, including politicians and government workers, were accused of being in a militia, including Domingos Brazão. Although Brazão was in the report, he was not accused of anything.

Violence related to politics happens a lot in Rio. These killings are usually connected to arguments over land and politics. However, these cases usually are not solved and don’t cause as much public outcry as Franco’s death did. She was becoming very popular in politics and was known for speaking out against police mistreatment of people in poor neighborhoods called favelas.

Franco, known by her first name, grew up in a favela called Mare near Rio’s airport. She started working for human rights after her friend was killed by a stray bullet during a fight between police and drug dealers. She worked for a company called Freixo looking into organized crime and then became a member of Rio’s city council in 2016. She continued to listen to and pass on complaints about police mistreatment, until just a few days before she was murdered.

She was one of the few Black women on the council. Some people didn’t like her confidence and being there, but she didn’t let that bother her.

She was leaving an event to help Black girls, when a car drove up next to hers and started shooting. Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, died right away.

“Freixo said on X, formerly Twitter, that they picked Marielle because she is a Black woman and they thought they wouldn’t get caught. ” He said big groups of people came together the day after she was killed to remember her, and the people who killed her didn’t understand how important Marielle was.

The killing of Franco and the hope she stood for made her a symbol of the fight against the government in Brazil and other countries. Many people protested to show their anger, her image was put on walls and T-shirts, a street sign in Rio was named after her, and her sister became Brazil’s minister of racial equality.

The Brazúo brothers’ political group is linked to a part of the city where militias have been in charge for a long time. These militias were started by former police officers who wanted to fight crime in their neighborhoods using guns. They started to force shop owners to give them money and pay for things like internet, gas, and cable TV. Recently, they have started taking over land and building properties illegally.

The lower house of Brazil will soon vote on whether to keep lawmaker Chiquinho Brazão in prison. He could be released if 257 people vote in favor of it during the ongoing investigation. Brazão is a strong supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro and will probably get a lot of support from other people who think the same way.