PF launches operation to arrest those responsible for the murder of Marielle Franco

The Federal Police (PF) is carrying out an operation this Sunday (24) to arrest the alleged “intellectual authors” of the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco in 2018, a crime that shocked Brazil and the world.

The action complies with “three preventive arrest warrants and 12 search and seizure warrants” in the city of Rio and targets “the intellectual authors” of the crime against Marielle and her driver Anderson Gomes, the PF said in a statement.

According to the local press, the former counselor of the Rio Court of Auditors, Domingos Brazão, were arrested; his brother, federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão and the former head of the Rio Civil Police, Rivaldo Barbosa.

Police did not confirm the arrests or immediately respond to AFP questions.

“Today is another big step towards getting the answers that we have asked ourselves so much in recent years: who ordered Mari to be killed and why?”, said on the X network the Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, sister of the councilor.

“We have a long way to go,” he added in another message.

Last Tuesday, the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, said he expected a resolution of the case “soon”, after the Court validated an important confession.

The statement by Ronnie Lessa, a former Rio military police officer who is arrested on suspicion of having fired the weapon, provided very important elements for the progress of the investigation, said the minister.

Under a plea bargain agreement, approved by the STF minister, Alexandre de Moraes, Lessa would have passed on to the authorities the names of the alleged perpetrators of the crime.

The main measures came after the case was placed under the direction of the Federal Police in February 2023, a month after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to power.

– Denunciations –

Marielle Franco, a black woman who defends minorities and criticizes police violence, was shot dead along with her driver on March 14, 2018, when she was 38 years old.

Both were shot by the occupants of another vehicle on a street in the center of Rio.

The Public Ministry of Rio considered in 2019 that “Marielle Franco was a victim of summary execution due to her political activity and the causes she defended”. Although the line of investigation did not exclude other motivations.

The case had already advanced in July last year, when the alleged driver of the car and former member of the Military Police, Elcio Queiroz, confessed to his and Lessa’s participation in the crime.

His statement led the police to arrest former firefighter Maxwell Simões Correa in Rio de Janeiro, who would have been in charge of monitoring Franco’s steps for months and hiding the weapons used in the crime.

Investigators believe that Lessa and Queiroz have links to paramilitary militias, denounced several times by Marielle Franco.

These groups were formed around four decades ago by former police officers, retired military personnel, firefighters and prison guards, among others, supposedly to protect favela residents from drug trafficking factions.

However, they ended up becoming mafias that demand expensive taxes in exchange for this “protection”.

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