Brazilian police arrest three masterminds behind the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco

The Brazilian Federal Police (PF) arrested this Sunday the three alleged intellectual authors of the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, on the night of March 14, 2018, a crime that shook the country and had international repercussion.

The question “Who ordered the murder of Marielle Franco?”, which went viral and spread around the world, began to finally be answered when a Federal Police operation, carried out in the early hours of this Sunday morning, carried out preventive arrest warrants against the Domingos Brazão brothers, currently advisor to the State Court of Auditors, and Chiquinho Brazão, federal deputy from Rio de Janeiro for the União Brasil party, as well as Rivaldo Barbosa, former head of the Civil Police of Rio.

This Sunday’s PF operation, called Murder Inc, also involved 12 search and seizure warrants in Rio de Janeiro. The three detainees were already taken to Brasília and spent the night in the Papuda penitentiary.

The arrests take place five days after Ronnie Lessa, considered the author of the shots that killed Franco and Gomes and in prison since 2019, reached an agreement with the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for a plea bargain in which he named the masterminds and the motivation of the crime.

Investigators decided to carry out the operation in the early hours of Sunday to surprise the suspects, as information from police intelligence indicated that they had already been on alert in recent days and were preparing to escape, after the STF announced the approval of Ronnie Lessa’s collaboration agreement. , a former military police officer.

The intellectual authors, according to Lessa, are part of a powerful political group in Rio de Janeiro with diverse interests in different sectors of the State. The former police officer gave details of meetings with him and clues as to his motives.

According to information from local media, Marielle’s death was ordered due to the councilor’s resistance to a bill that regularizes condominiums in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, which has neighborhoods controlled by militiamen who operate real estate projects.

In a press interview this Sunday afternoon, the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, reiterated information about the prisoners and stated that the conclusion of the investigations and arrests is “a significant triumph of the Brazilian State against organized crime”.

Marielle Franco, Rio de Janeiro councilor for the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) and a prominent social activist in defense of minorities, was shot dead on the night of March 14, 2018 as she left a meeting, while traveling in a car in the center of Rio de Janeiro, hit by gunfire from another vehicle that came alongside hers.

Marielle, then 38 years old, died instantly, as did her driver, Anderson Gomes, while an advisor to the counselor, who was also in the car, was slightly injured and, for safety reasons, had to leave Brazil for a few months.

The crime shocked Brazil and caught the attention of the international press. The first investigations made it clear that it had been the work of professionals, as the shooter had unusual dexterity and aim. The street cameras in the center of Rio did not work that night.

Two days before one year of the murder, the police arrested two former police officers, Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz, accused of being respectively the shooter and the driver of the vehicle that followed Marielle’s car.

Since then, it remained unclear who the perpetrators of the crime were and why. The case was practically paralyzed during Jair Bolsonaro’s government (2018-2022), but upon taking office in 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who appointed Marielle’s sister, Anielle Franco, as Minister of Racial Equality, promised to clarify the crime.

In turn, former Minister of Justice Flávio Dino, now minister of the Federal Supreme Court, confirmed this promise when taking office on January 2, 2023: “I told Minister Anielle and her mother that it is a matter of honor that the The Brazilian State will make every effort possible, and the Federal Police will do so, so that this crime is solved and we know who killed Marielle and who ordered Marielle’s death.”

The Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, Marielle’s sister, celebrated, through a message on social media, the arrest of the perpetrators: “Only God knows how much we dream of this day! Today is another big step towards getting the answers we so desperately need. We have asked ourselves in recent years: who ordered Mari to be killed and why? I appreciate the commitment of the PF, the federal government, the federal and state Public Ministry and Minister Alexandre de Moraes. We are closer to Justice! Great day!”, he stated .

The biggest surprise of this Sunday’s operation was the arrest of Rivaldo Barbosa, a delegate who had assumed the position of head of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police the day before Marielle’s murder and who, according to the Federal Police, was responsible for “meticulously planning the crime”, having received money to hinder the investigations and guarantee the impunity of those who ordered it.