Brazilian activists are outraged over the drive-by assassination of outspoken critic against police corruption and Rio city council member, Marielle Franco. A series of protests have been called in the aftermath of Marielle Francos death. </s> This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

As pressure grows on the authorities in Brazil to find the killers of Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, an open letter by international activists, writers, journalists, film-makers, politicians and actors has called for an investigation of her murder by an independent commission.



Franco and her driver were shot dead on 14 March, in a targeted assassination which unleashed a wave of anger across Brazil, and provoked urgent debate on the country’s racism, violence and impunity.

Marielle Franco’s murderers must be brought to justice | Letters Read more

The human rights activist from Rio’s Maré favela complex had denounced killings blamed on police and was in charge of a city council commission monitoring the Brazilian government’s “federal intervention” which put the military in charge of policing in Rio state.



“She vehemently challenged the impunity surrounding extrajudicial killings of Black youth by security forces,” write the authors of the letter, published in the Guardian and O Globo. “Marielle’s activism earned her many powerful enemies.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ava DuVernay, Arundhati Roy, Angela Davis, Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Black Lives Matter co-founders Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, Naomi Campbell, Noam Chomsky, and actors Thandie Newton, Gael García Bernal and Narcos star Wagner Moura are among the signatories.

“Given that Marielle’s assassination bears all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination, we call for the creation of an independent commission comprised of prominent and respected national and international human rights and legal experts and tasked with carrying out an independent investigation,” they wrote.



As the letter noted, two days before her murder Franco had denounced the police’s role in the killing of a young black man named Matheus Melo, who was shot dead after leaving an evangelical church service in the Jacarezinho favela.



She had also criticised Rio’s 41st police battalion – which has been linked to numerous killings – or “terrorising and abusing” residents of the Acari favela, where two men were killed and thrown into a drainage ditch on 5 March.

The Intercept Brasil has reported that one line of inquiry involves “militias” – mafias whose members include serving and former police officers. In 2008 Franco worked on a city council commission into militias in Rio.

Rio police said they would not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Homero Freitas Filho, who leads a team of prosecutors also working on the investigation, told the Guardian that Franco’s killing was believed to be connected to her political work and denunciations.

“No hypothesis will be discarded but this is the principal one,” he said, adding that he had recently requested and been given five extra prosecutors.



Local media have reported that Franco and Gomes were shot through the back window when a car drew up near theirs. Her press assistant, who was with Franco on the back seat, described a rapid burst of fire in an anonymous television interview.



Marielle Franco: Brazil’s favelas mourn the death of a champion Read more

The 9-millimeter bullets came from a batch stolen from federal police in 2006, some of which were also used in a massacre in Osasco, near São Paulo in 2015, in which 17 people were killed. Three police officers and a municipal guard have been convicted of homicide in the case.

Freitas Filho said that 1.8m bullets were stolen in the robbery. “They could have been distributed to all kinds of criminals,” he said.

Her killers – who had followed her from a meeting in two cars – also chose a “blind spot” where street cameras were not functioning. Since the murder, the site has become a shrine, with flowers, pictures and graffiti reading “police kill”, “execution” and “Black lives matter”.



This week, Pope Francis called Franco’s mother, Marinete da Silva.

Last Sunday about 5,000 people marched in her memory in the Maré favela complex she was from. On Tuesday night thousands more paraded through central Rio streets, filling the square in front of Rio’s municipal chamber and singing along to music played by an orchestra.



Many in the crowd were black Brazilians from lower-income communities. Street vendors had decorated their cool boxes and stalls with stickers and posters with Franco’s name. “It’s important for black people to be here,” said Pedro Vidal, 26, a nurse. “We won’t accept this and we won’t let it pass.” </s> Brazilian authorities are facing mounting pressure to identify those responsible for the murder of Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman and rights activist Marielle Franco, who was gunned down last week in what many believe was a targeted assassination.

The shooting of Franco and her driver on March 14 prompted an outpouring of anger in grief in Brazil, with tens of thousands of protestors marching through administrative districts last week. Millions more took to social media to denounce the killing.

The U.N. has called for a “thorough, transparent and independent” inquiry, which an investigating prosecutor told the is believed to be connected to Franco’s political work.

Franco, 38, was an advocate for marginalized communities, including Afro-Brazilians, LGBTQ groups and residents of the city’s sprawling , frequently spoke out against police brutality and racial inequality.

Read more: The Assassination of Brazilian Politician Marielle Franco Turned Her Into a Global Icon

The only black female representative on Rio’s city council, she had also criticized President Michel Temer’s deployment of military forces to provide security in Rio’s most dangerous slums.

On March 22, prominent figures posted an open letter demanding an independent probe. “We call for justice for Marielle Franco and the daughter and the partner she leaves behind, and for an end to the killings and criminalization of activists, government opponents and low-income people in Brazil,” they wrote. </s> Last week’s murder of black Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco has already sparked global protests and calls to hold her killers accountable ― especially if the main suspects are, as various news reports have said, members of extrajudicial militias that often include rogue current and former Rio police officers.

Now, more than three dozen prominent actors, authors, politicians and activists are joining the cause. On Thursday, the group penned an open letter that demands justice for Franco’s murder and calls for an independent investigation to help solve it.

“We are deeply concerned and shocked by this commando-style killing of a woman who was a voice for the voiceless and a symbol of resistance to state-perpetrated violence, militarization and anti-democratic forces,” says the letter, which was published in and first reported by The Guardian and Brazil’s Globo News.

Franco, a 38-year-old first-term councilwoman, was a crusader against police violence in Rio, where one of the world’s deadliest police forces killed more than 900 people ― the majority of them black ― in 2016. A native of Complexo da Mare, a network of informal favela neighborhoods on Rio’s north side, she was also a type of advocate for the city’s poorest residents that they have rarely had before.

Widespread and persistent street protests in Rio de Janeiro and other cities across Brazil have put pressure on police to solve the case. But the possibility of police involvement in the death has also created skepticism among many Brazilians that Rio officials will actually bring Franco’s killers to justice. The bullets that killed Franco were linked to a cache purchased by the federal police in 2006, and militiamen are said to be key suspects in what appeared to be a professional-style killing.

“Given that Marielle’s murder bears all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination,” the letter states, “we call for the creation of an independent commission comprised of prominent and respected national and international human rights and legal experts and tasked with carrying out an independent investigation of the murder of Marielle Franco with the full cooperation of state judicial and police authorities.”

The letter is the latest and loudest call for an independent investigation instead of the probe Rio police are leading, and it comes from a number of prominent celebrities and activists.

We call for justice for Marielle Franco and the daughter and the partner she leaves behind, and for an end to the killings and criminalization of activists, government opponents and low-income people in Brazil.

“We call for justice for Marielle Franco and the daughter and the partner she leaves behind, and for an end to the killings and criminalization of activists, government opponents and low-income people in Brazil,” the letter concludes.

Before taking office, Franco had worked on an official investigation into killings by the informal militias, many of which include current or former police officers, that operate across Rio.

In 2016, she won an improbable election to Rio’s city council as a member of the leftist Socialism and Freedom Party, or PSOL. Her victory made her the only black woman on the 51-member council and a powerful voice for Rio’s favela residents ― for whom she was a staunch advocate and defender.

Franco opposed President Michel Temer’s decision to put the military in charge of public security in Rio de Janeiro, and she had recently been appointed to a commission to oversee military intervention. Just days before her murder, she had called attention to the police killings of two young, black Brazilians.

Her sudden murder ― and her status as a black lesbian from the favelas who fought for racial, gender and LGBTQ equality, for an end to police violence, and against Rio and Brazil’s entrenched political establishment ― quickly brought international attention to her cause.

Protests that broke out in Rio and Sao Paulo immediately after her death soon spread to New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, and other cities across Europe and Latin America. In Washington, more than 40 people ― many of them Brazilian expatriates ― staged a vigil outside the White House last week.

An unseasonable snowstorm had shut down much of Washington for the day and nearly led the activists to postpone the vigil meant to mark the one-week anniversary of Franco’s death.

They drew links, too, between police violence in the United States ― where police killed nearly 1,000 people in 2016 ― and Brazil ― where police killed more than 4,200 people in 2016. In the United States, black people are more than twice as likely as whites to be killed in encounters with police. More than three-quarters of the people killed by Brazil’s police in 2016, meanwhile, were black. The activists noted, too, that in both the U.S. and Brazil, women and LGBTQ people still face disproportionate levels of violence. </s> Last week one of Brazil’s most courageous social leaders was brutally assassinated on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Marielle Franco, a city councilwoman and human rights defender, was shot four times in the head by unknown assailants in a passing vehicle shortly after leaving a gathering of young black activists. Her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was also killed (Report, 16 March).

Long before being elected to Rio’s city council in 2016, Marielle was widely known as a tireless and fearless advocate for the rights of Afro-Brazilians, LGBT people, women and low-income communities. A gay black woman born and raised in one of Rio’s poorest neighbourhoods, she campaigned relentlessly against spiralling police violence in the city’s favelas.

Marielle’s activism earned her many powerful enemies. She vehemently challenged the impunity surrounding extrajudicial killings of black youth by security forces and, two days before her death, had denounced the police’s role in the killing of a young black man named Matheus Melo. She was a leading critic of the military intervention in Rio de Janeiro and was the head of a city commission tasked with monitoring the intervention.

We are deeply concerned and shocked by this commando-style killing of a woman who was a voice for the voiceless and a symbol of resistance to state-perpetrated violence, militarisation and anti-democratic forces. Given that Marielle’s murder bears all the hallmarks of a targeted assassination, we call for the creation of an independent commission comprised of prominent and respected national and international human rights and legal experts and tasked with carrying out an independent investigation of the murder of Marielle Franco with the full cooperation of state judicial and police authorities.

Shortly before her death, Marielle asked: “How many others will have to die before this war will end?” We call for justice for Marielle Franco and the daughter and the partner she leaves behind, and for an end to the killings and criminalisation of activists, government opponents and low-income people in Brazil.

Ava DuVernay Film-maker

Rev Jesse Jackson Civil rights activist 

Anielle Silva Sister of Marielle Franco

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Author

Arundhati Roy Author

Angela Davis Distinguished professor emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz

Janelle Monáe Singer and actress 

Edward Snowden Whistleblower and president of the Freedom of Press Foundation 

Shami Chakrabarti UK shadow attorney general

Naomi Campbell Model and activist

Ta-Nehisi Coates Author and journalist

Noam Chomsky Professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT, political theorist

Patrisse Cullors Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, LGBT activist

David Miranda First LGBT Rio city councillor, PSOL

Glenn Greenwald Journalist

Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres Daughter of the late Berta Cáceres, general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH)

Wagner Moura Brazilian actor and director

Luciana Genro Founder of PSOL, former presidential candidate, Brazil

Marcelo Freixo Rio state representative, PSOL, Defence of Human Rights & Citizenship chair

Linda Sarsour National co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York

Ayo Obe President of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation

Baltasar Garzón International human rights lawyer

Thandie Newton Actress and activist 

Celso Amorim Former Brazilian foreign minister

Danny Glover Actor, film director, and activist 

Naomi Klein Author and journalist

Gael García Bernal Actor and director 

Shaun King Journalist and civil rights activist 

Pamela Anderson Actress and activist 

Alfonso Cuarón Film-maker

Opal Tometi Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter, executive director at Black Alliance for Just Immigration 

Oliver Stone Film-maker

Yanis Varoufakis Former Greek finance minister

Viggo Mortensen Actor

Renata Avila Guatemalan human rights lawyer 

Owen Jones Journalist

Slavoj Žižek Philosopher, Birkbeck Institute for Humanities </s> RIO DE JANEIRO — Police in Brazil have arrested two suspects in the killing of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver.

The brazen assassination of the two on March 14 last year led to massive protests and widespread anger in Latin America's largest nation.

A police spokesman told The Associated Press that two men were taken into custody early Tuesday. Per agency protocol, the spokesman asked that his name not be used.

The two men arrested were former police officers, according to the police spokesman. One allegedly shot Franco and the other drove a car involved in the shooting.

Franco, who was black and a lesbian, had been a frequent critic of police violence, particularly in poor neighborhoods called favelas.

Marches are planned for Thursday, the year anniversary of the death. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Crowds demand justice for murdered activist

Tens of thousands of people in Rio de Janeiro and other cities across Brazil have taken to the streets to mourn a murdered politician who had campaigned against police brutality.

Marielle Franco, a 38-year-old Rio city councillor, was viewed by many as a champion of women's rights.

Ms Franco and her driver were both shot dead while in her car on Wednesday.

Brazilian President Michel Temer called her murder an attack on democracy and the rule of law.

'Barbaric crime'

Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann has said the federal government will use all resources available to find her killers.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Marielle Franco was born in Favela da Mare, one of Rio's most violent shanty towns

"I'm here at the request of President Temer," he said at a press conference.

"I would like to tell the friends of relatives of Marielle that we will find those responsible and punish them for this barbaric crime," Mr Jungmann added.

"Justice will be done."

Ms Franco was returning from an event encouraging black women's empowerment in central Rio when a car drew alongside hers and nine shots rang out.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Marielle Franco's murder shocked the nation

She and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were both killed, and her press officer, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, was injured.

Police officials said it appeared Ms Franco had been deliberately targeted.

She was shot four times in the head, and three bullets hit Mr Gomes.

Ms Franco was elected to the city council in 2016 and presided over the women's commission. She was a councillor for the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party.

Last month, she was chosen to be the speaker of the commission overseeing the deployment of federal security forces into Rio's favelas.

President Temer deployed the military in the state of Rio in February after a spike in violent crime during carnival.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Marielle Franco was buried before dusk at Rio's Caju Cemetery

The measure was approved by Brazil's Congress but has stirred controversy with some residents complaining about harassment.

Ms Franco, who grew up in Mare, a favela complex in the north of the city, has been an outspoken critic of the move to deploy the army and the federal police force.

On Tuesday, she posted on Twitter about the killing in the Manguinhos favela of a 23-year-old man, which the youth's family blamed on the military police.

"Another killing of a youth which could end up on the PM [military police] tally. Matheus Melo was leaving church. How many more will have to die before this war ends?" she asked.

Skip Twitter post by @mariellefranco Mais um homicídio de um jovem que pode estar entrando para a conta da PM. Matheus Melo estava saindo da igreja. Quantos mais vão precisar morrer para que essa guerra acabe? — Marielle Franco (@mariellefranco) March 13, 2018 Report

In another tweet she expressed her solidarity with the people of the favela of Acari.

"What is happening now in Acari is absurd!" she posted. "The 41st battalion of the military police is known as the battalion of death. Enough of trampling all over the population! Enough of killing our youth!" she wrote, adding a picture with the words "We're all Acari, stop killing us!"

Skip Twitter post 2 by @mariellefranco O que está acontecendo agora em Acari é um absurdo! E acontece desde sempre! O 41° batalhão da PM é conhecido como Batalhão da morte. CHEGA de esculachar a população! CHEGA de matarem nossos jovens! pic.twitter.com/SrSycFE5Sl — Marielle Franco (@mariellefranco) March 10, 2018 Report

The UN Human Rights Office in Geneva condemned the "deeply shocking murder of a well-known human rights defender" and called for a "thorough, transparent and independent" investigation to be carried out as soon as possible.

Amnesty International urged that the investigation be rigorous and focus on "the context, motive and responsibility" for the killing. </s> On the night of March 14, Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes were shot and killed in her car after leaving a black-women’s empowerment event. The killing of the human-rights activist mobilized tens of thousands of Brazilians to demand justice and sparked tributes from around the world.

Born and raised in the Maré favela, one of Rio’s most dangerous slums, 38-year-old Franco was a fierce advocate for the marginalized–including Afro-Brazilians, the poor, the LGBTQ community and women–and a critic of President Michel Temer’s federal intervention in the city. As a black, lesbian single mother, she was a minority several times over in Brazilian politics and the only black woman on Rio’s 51-member city council, having received the fifth most votes in the election that won her the seat.

Tens of thousands of people have protested Franco’s death in cities across the country, as well as in New York City, Paris, Berlin and elsewhere. Her name was mentioned in more than 3 million tweets in 54 countries over the two days following her death, often with the hashtags #MariellePresente (Marielle Is Here) and #SayHerName, the latter borrowed from Black Lives Matter activists. Some demonstrators have also used her death as a rallying cry to call for an end to systemic racism in Brazil.

What happens next

Some activists believe Franco was killed for speaking out against abuses of military and police power in Brazil, and human-rights observers have criticized what they call a culture of impunity in Brazilian law enforcement. The protests, led largely by young Brazilians, have highlighted their demands for legitimate leadership and their broader dissatisfaction with the nation’s political system. As the police continue their investigation into the apparent hit, many of Franco’s followers are looking to the October elections as an opportunity to continue her struggle.

This appears in the April 02, 2018 issue of TIME. </s> Sao Paulo, Brazil - Two former police officers were arrested early on Tuesday morning in Rio de Janeiro over last year's murder of black activist and councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes.

Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Vieira de Queiroz are accused of participating in the murders of Franco and Gomes, according to a police statement sent to Al Jazeera. Their arrest comes two days before the anniversary of the deadly drive-by shooting.

According to prosecutors, Queiroz drove the car that ambushed Franco, while Lessa fired the shots that hit the activist in her neck and head.

Lessa and Queiroz are also accused of attempted murder of Franco's press secretary, who was also in the car the night of the shooting but suffered only minor injuries.

"This is absolutely great news and I commend the local authorities", Monica Benicio, Marielle Franco's widow, told Al Jazeera over the phone.

"But the real question remains: Who ordered Marielle's killings?"

According to the prosecutor's office, "it is undisputed that Marielle Francisco da Silva was summarily executed because of the political causes that she defended."

Franco, who was a black, lesbian Rio de Janeiro councilwoman for the Socialism and Liberty Party, was born in the Mare favela. During her life and after her death she became a symbol of resistance against police brutality and the presence of armed groups in the city and throughout Brazil.

She regularly denounced police abuse and stood up for the rights of women and the LGBT community.

The questions "Who killed Marielle?" and "Who ordered Marielle's killing?" became nationwide slogans for justice for issues regarding women and black Brazilians.

Wilson Witzel, Rio de Janeiro's governor, said authorities could open a "second investigation" into Franco's murder "if necessary".

"We have done great strides and I'm sure we will move forward even more," he said.

According to police, Queiroz had been expelled from the force in 2011 after being arrested in an operation connecting police officers with armed groups and drug traffickers. Lessa retired after a bomb attempt against him. Before that, he received a distinction from Rio's parliament.

Protests marking the one year anniversary of Franco's murder are scheduled for Thursday.
An open letter from international politicians, activists, journalists, and academics demands an independent commission be formed to investigate the assassination of Brazilian human rights activist Marielle Franco and her driver.