After 14 months of investigation and many obstacles, this Sunday, March 24, the Federal Police of Brazil arrested three people suspected of having ordered the death of Marielle Franco, a left-wing councilor, murdered on March 14, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro. In this way, the participation of unexpected powerful characters begins to be known. This is the story.
“It is a Sunday of great pain, but also a day for justice to be done,” these were the words today of Marinete Silva, the mother of councilor Marielle Franco brutally murdered on March 14, 2018 along with her driver Anderson Gomes.
Marinete spoke excitedly first thing in the morning in Brazil's main news channelshortly after hearing the news of the arrest of those suspected of having ordered a crime that had worldwide repercussions.
They are federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão, from the União Brasil party, and his brother Domingos Brazão, advisor to the Court of Accounts of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Rivaldo Barbosa, former head of the Rio Civil Police, has also been arrested, who took office precisely one day before the crime with the task of guaranteeing the impunity of the perpetrators.
“The biggest surprise in all this has been Rivaldo's name. “My daughter trusted him, in his work,” says Marinete. Commissioner Rivaldo received Marielle's family the day after the crime and promised to solve the enigma. “He said it was a matter of honor to clarify this case. “When something like this happens to you with an authority that should do your job, it is even more difficult to see his name in this mud,” Marielle's mother adds.
It had been exactly six years and 10 days since this family, and a large part of Brazilian civil society, had demanded an answer to the question: “Who ordered Marielle and Anderson killed, and why?” Doubt constantly appeared in all the manifestations of the left and social movements, regardless of the cause that was being claimed at any given time.
The investigation was a Government promise
At the beginning of its mandate, the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to offer a solution to one of the most convoluted police cases of the last decade. Lula appointed Anielle Franco, Marielle's sister, as Minister of Racial Equality.
Furthermore, the former Minister of Justice Flávio Dino, today a judge of the Supreme Federal Court, solemnly confirmed this commitment on the day of his investiture, January 2, 2023. “I told Minister Anielle and her mother, who is a It is a matter of honor that the Brazilian State makes every possible effort, and the Federal Police will do so, so that this crime is definitively resolved and we know who killed Marielle and who ordered the killing of Marielle Franco that day in Rio de Janeiro. I know what it's like to lose a child,” Dino said on that occasion.
Fourteen months later and after a long investigation that has had to overcome many obstacles, including dozens of false evidence planted by accomplices of the murderers, the Federal Police has arrested three suspects in these murders and, in addition, has issued 12 search and arrest warrants in Rio de Janeiro.
This outcome has been possible thanks to the approval in the Supreme Court of the award-winning denunciation of former military police officer Ronnie Lessa, one of the material authors of the double murder. Lessa has been in prison since 2019 and decided to collaborate with the Federal Police in November of last year, after discovering the betrayal of his crony. This is Élcio de Queiroz, also a military police officer, who was driving the car from which the shots were fired. He revealed that Lessa pulled the trigger.
Since then, federal agents have dedicated themselves to verifying all the information offered by Lessa. For security reasons, the authorities made the decision to keep the investigation confidential. The purpose was to avoid reprisals against the family of the hired killer.
Continue on the trail of the powerful
Now the Police will have to discover if there are more people involved in this brutal execution and what the motivation is; dAt the moment, he is working with the hypothesis that it would be linked to Marielle Franco's fight against the advance of the militias in Rio de Janeiro. They are the dangerous criminal groups formed by ex-police officers and ex-military personnel, who control drug trafficking, the sale of gas and bottled water in the favelas of Rio, in addition to civil construction and fraudulent connections to Internet, television and other networks. and electricity in the poor neighborhoods of the city.
The militias: a horror story that threatens Rio de Janeiro
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According to investigators, the energetic actions of Marielle, who in 2008 worked alongside former deputy Marcelo Freixo on a parliamentary commission on militias, would have bothered the Brazão brothers to the point of entrusting the execution of the councilor to a group of professional thugs.
What they did not expect is that the case would cause great commotion throughout the world. The Paris City Council even placed Marielle's photo on its façade and dedicated a garden to her memory.
It is worth remembering that, during Jair Bolsonaro's mandate, the militias came to dominate up to 60% of the territory of Rio de Janeiro, according to several studies such as the Fuego Cruzado data laboratory. Both the former president and his son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, demonstrated support for the militia groups on several occasions.
Flávio Bolsonaro even wanted to honor one of them with a medal. It was Adriano de Nóbrega, who was his shooting instructor and the senator, then a deputy in the Parliament of Rio, who gave employment to several of his relatives in his cabinet. Jair Bolsonaro called him a “hero” after his death in 2020. Adriano de Nóbrega was executed in the State of Bahia. The area's Security Secretariat revealed that Nóbrega was suspected of being involved in the murder of Marielle and Anderson, but his name was never included in the investigation of the case.
During the Bolsonaro era, the investigation of the Marielle case was shelved in the drawers of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, the institution responsible for doing intelligence work. Only with the arrival of the left-wing Government and the federalization of the case has it been possible to reach an outcome, which, however, cannot be considered definitive.
Today, after hearing the news, Minister Anielle Franco, the victim's sister, said:
As a sister and as a member of the Government, I see that there are many things that give us a feeling of victory, but I know that this is not over. The involvement of Commissioner Rivaldo gives the impression that the game is not over
The Federal Police even suspect that Rivaldo may have participated in the preparations for the murder. For now, these arrests reveal how deep the tentacles of corruption can run within the political and security machinery of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
There is another detail that deserves to be highlighted: Rivaldo was appointed by Generals Walter Souza Braga Netto and Richard Nunes, respectively, intervener of Michel Temer's government in Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and Secretary of Security in the intervention, which lasted from 16 February 2018 until January 1, 2019.
Braga Netto was subsequently appointed Minister of Defense by Bolsonaro and head of his cabinet. In 2022, he was a candidate for vice president alongside the former president. Today he is being targeted by the Federal Police as the head behind the complex logistical scheme set up to organize the alleged coup d'état on January 8, 2023. Everything indicates that the tentacles of Rio crime could dot the corridors of power in Brasilia.
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