RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL – Today, the Brazilian Supreme Court announced that they had convicted the masterminds behind the assassination of socialist Rio de Janeiro City Councilwoman Marielle Franco guilty on all counts.
The court found that the former Chief of Rio de Janeiro Civil Police Rivaldo Barbosa, Brazilian Congressman Chiquinho Brazão, and his brother, Rio State Auditor General Domingos Brazão, were responsible for ordering the killing of Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in 2018.
(Full disclosure: Franco and I had studied sociology together at PUC-Rio in the mid-2000s).
The sentencing tops off an 8-year fight by activists to prosecute the killers of Marielle Franco, many of whom were closely linked to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting to overthrow President Lula in 2022.
For nearly 5 years, activists say that they faced continuous roadblocks to investigating the assassination of Franco during the government of Jair Bolsonaro. Then, in 2023, Lula took office and took over the investigation of the case, resulting in the arrests of the political kingpins behind the assassination.
Marielle Franco’s widow, Rio City Councilwoman Mônica Benício, celebrated the news of the sentences.
“This judgement, after eight long years of waiting, is fundamental for us,” said Benício in a statement sent to Payday Report.
“For the country, this is an opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to break with the selective penal system that protects criminal structures and their political ties,” said Benício. We must learn a lesson from what the assassination of Marielle and Anderson reveals about Brasil: the obscure connections between crime, politics, and the police.”
The investigation into Franco’s death revealed how paramilitary gangs tied to Bolsonaro and his political allies were routinely able to use violence to stymie investigations and reform.
Three weeks before Marielle Franco was assassinated, she had been appointed to head a Rio de Janeiro city commission investigating the 2018 military takeover of the Rio de Janeiro police.
During the 2018 military takeover of the Rio civilian police, military officers replaced civilian police chiefs, and 8,500 soldiers were deployed to battle drug gangs in Rio, resulting in a 40% increase in killings by the police and army.A record 1,500 people were killed by the police and army in Rio de Janeiro in 2018.
As part of the takeover, General Braga Neto, Bolsonaro’s right-hand man, appointed Rivaldo head of the civil police in Rio de Janeiro. (Braga Neto has since been sentenced to jail for plotting to overthrow Lula).
The military and civil police were accused by Marielle Franco of working closely with paramilitary gangs. Paramilitary gangs run by former police officers run protection rackets, own large apartment buildings, and often engage in drug dealing.
The Brazão brothers, who were closely linked to paramilitary gangs in Rio de Janeiro, had long been suspected of murdering Marielle Franco. As a Rio City Councilwoman, Franco had been investigating how Brazáo, who earned the nickname “King of Jacarepagua,” used his ties to paramilitary gangs to increase his political influence and grow his business as a major developer in Jacarepagua, a large suburb of Rio.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said that the killers were motivated by racism and a belief that they could get away with their crimes as paramilitary gangs had done for years in Brazil.
“It raises questions about misogyny, racism, and discrimination. Marielle Franco was a black woman, she was poor…She was questioning the interests of the paramilitary,” said de Moraes in his sentencing. “In the thinking of misogyny, racism, the killers and executioners thought who would care about this? Thinking in a way of 100, 50 years ago, they thought “let’s eliminate here and there won’t be repercussions.”
Indeed for nearly 5 years, right-wing governments in Rio did not prosecute the case. However, activists keep marching with signs asking “Who Killed Marielle Franco?”. Franco’s widow, Monica Benício says that the conviction is a result of a mass movement that demanded answers in their killing.
“Big thanks to the whole world that mobilized this,” said Benício after the conviction. “Now, we can take her story and inspire ourselves to fight for all those, who should not be abandoned”.
Benício says that the investigation and sentences are turning points for Brazilian democracy.
However, Benício warned that the paramilitary still holds tremendous power through their connections with right-wing politicians in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
In October, state representative TH Joias, a financial backer of Rio de Janeiro’s right wing governors, was arrested for running guns to the gang Commandante Vermelho.
In December, Rodrigo Bacellar, the president of the Rio de Janeiro State House, was arrested for impeding federal investigation into ties between far-right parties and the very drug gangs and paramilitary groups that menace Rio de Janeiro.
Benício said she hoped that the sentences on Tuesday in the assasination of her wife, Marielle Franco, would inspire people to continue to fight against the declining influence of paramilitary gangs in Rio.
“The struggle, however, does not end with the trial,” said Benício. “To do justice for Marielle is to carry her legacy forward. To do justice in her name is to preserve her memory and fight for social transformation. Marielle is the seed of a belief in a just, egalitarian country, where women like her can flourish and live fully.”
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