The blood that flowed from Marielle Franco five years ago It has not generated justice. This Tuesday, in Rio de Janeiro, commemorative acts took place and demanded impunity for the murder of a person who was a city councilor, sociologist, activist for human rights and the black population, and openly lesbian.
Franco died for five shots in an attack that suffered in a central street when she was 38 years old and after participating in an act of black women. In those days she had been denouncing the violence in the favelas and the actions of parapolice groups in poor communities. The attack also killed Anderson Gomez, his driver. The adviser fernanda chaves survived.
This Tuesday, followers and sympathizers gathered in Mauá Square, in the Centro neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The events, which closed overnight with a musical festival, had as their central point the unveiling by their relatives of an 11-meter sculpture installed on the columns at the entrance of the Rio Art Museum (MAR) to remember the legacy of the activist and demand certainties: who ordered his death?
The sculpture “Corte Seco – Marielle” was donated by the artist paulo nazareth to the Marielle Franco Institute, an organization created by the activist’s family with the aim of seeking and pressing for Justice.
His mother, Marinette SilvaHe recalled the last moments with his daughter and denounced the judicial delays. The day before, he had attended a meeting with the federal task force established to help in the investigations, although he expressed his disagreement with the federalization of the case, which was decided in February after a first attempt was rejected in 2020.
The Marielle and Anderson Justice Committee is made up of the Marielle Franco Institute, Councilor Monica Beniciowidow of Marielle; agatha reisAnderson’s widow, and the organizations Global Justice, land of rights, Black Coalition for Rights and Amnesty International, which has denounced the case as a “portrait of the impunity that reigns in Brazil”.
During these five years, the case has had few results. In November 2018, the Federal Police opened an “investigation of the investigation”to investigate complaints of irregularities and interference in the work of the Civil Police and the State Public Ministry.
In March 2019, the retired military policeman Ronnie Lessa and the former military policeman Elcio Vieira de Queiroz they were arrested and charged by the state Public Ministry for the crime. The first would have activated the weapon, and the second would have driven the vehicle.
Beyond arrest the case has not advanced in court. “There are already more than a dozen prosecutors, three presidents of the Republic, three governors (of Rio de Janeiro), three attorney generals of Justice, three commissioners… and no response,” said the executive director of Amnesty on Tuesday. International for Brazil, jurema werneck.
And while justice appears paralyzed, the flags of the murdered councilor are raised in the public debate. In Congress, a Marielle bench has been organized, made up of left-wing parties and recently elected deputies at a national and regional level. They seek to promote the proposals championed by Franco and demand that the investigations into his death be completed.
These are congressmen who committed to the “Marielle agenda” during the 2022 campaign. Of the 145 candidates who did so, 44 were elected and are now grouped.
Likewise, the first lady Rosângela da Silva recalled the activist and said that together with her husband Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva continues “in the fight for justice and to honor his memory.” He mentioned the Government’s proposal to create the Marielle Franco National Daywhich the president announced on March 8.
The first lady is close to anielle francoMarielle’s sister and current Minister of Racial Equality.
murders complete half a decade without their perpetrators having been tried, not even in the first instanceand without reaching a conclusion about the existence or not of a person who ordered the crime.
Accused of being responsible for the shots that hit the councilwoman and her driver, Ronnie Lessa he was expelled from the Military Police just this year for his conviction for illegal arms trafficking in Federal Court.
the former prime minister Elcio Queiroz he remains in prison on charges that he drove the vehicle for Lessa to shoot the victims.
As for the federalization of the case, he is still against it. “The crime was in Rio de Janeiro, it depends on the authorities of Rio de Janeiro that the answer has to be given to the voters of Marielle, to society. I have never lost hope, but I am still against federalization,” she said.
The current director of the Federal Police of Rio de Janeiro, Leandro Almada, was responsible for pointing out a plot involving police, militiamen and even a former adviser to the TCE (State Court of Accounts) as the mastermind of the crime. From this, the first request for federalization of the case was produced, denied by the Justice, in 2020.
The researchers declined to give interviews, but some commented that one of the advantages of federalization would be the possibility of knowing if the weapon used in the crime was lost from the Federal Police’s own collection.
This is because the researchers concluded that in the crime an HK MP5 machine gun was used, used by both special forces and the PF. It is already known that a Federal Police weapon of the same model was lost from the arsenal and was never found. At the time, the Civil Police investigators even considered that this weapon was used, but nothing was proven.
The Minister of Justice, Flavio Dinoannounced in February of this year the help of the PF in the investigations.
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