O Globo. Franco and Gomes died instantly, while the advisor suffered minor injuries. Social organizations are calling for the crime to be investigated as an attack, and there are demonstrations across the country.

Criticism of the military intervention in the favelas

Franco was part of the commission created to oversee military interventions in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and on Tuesday the 13th he had condemned the murder of a boy and blamed the "war of the Military Police".

But there is a homicide of a young man who may be entering for a moment from PM. Matheus Melo was going to the church. How many more will I need to die for this war to end?

— Marielle Franco (@mariellefranco) March 13, 2018

Last month, the federal government decided to hand over control of public order in Rio de Janeiro to the Army due to the "unstoppable wave of violence".

Feminist and lesbian activist

Born and raised in the violent favela of Maré, she was elected city councilor in the 2016 Rio elections. This was her first term in local government, and in the city council, she chaired the Women's Commission. On her website, she explained that she decided to get involved in human rights movements after losing a friend to a stray bullet in a shootout between police and drug traffickers in her favela. She was also an LGBT rights activist and an open lesbian. "The state is responsible. Regardless of whether or not they find the culprits. My colleagues in Brazil and here in Argentina believe it's a form of disciplining Black women. It's a way of saying: you're worthless, we can kill you whenever we want," Sandra Chagas, an Afro-Argentine activist born in Uruguay, lesbian, and feminist, told Presentes. Franco was one of the driving forces behind the movement against harassment at Brazilian carnivals, actively participating in the #CarnavalSemAssédio (Carnival Without Harassment) campaign. She had also been trying for months to bring the debate on gender issues and the Black movement to the government, and was preparing a bill to reduce the number of sexual assaults and harassment on city buses. "I am shocked, shaken, and outraged," declared former President Dilma Rousseff. Amnesty International and the country's bar association demanded a thorough government investigation to clarify the motives for the assassination. "It is a crime against all of society and directly offends the values ​​of the rule of law," the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) stated in a press release. Franco's body will lie in state at Rio de Janeiro's city hall, and protest marches have been called in major cities across the country.