Brazil: Two former police officers arrested for the murder of Marielle Franco

Two days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of the lesbian councilwoman and human rights activist from Rio de Janeiro, the courts ordered the arrests.

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March 12, 2019

Two days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Rio de Janeiro lesbian councilwoman and human rights activist Marielle Franco, the courts ordered the first two arrests in the case: Ronnie Lessa, a 48-year-old retired military policeman, accused of being the shooter; and Elcio Viera de Queiroz, 46, who was expelled from the force for reasons that were not disclosed and identified as the driver of the car used in the attack.

On March 14, 2018, a Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman from the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), a lesbian, and a human rights activist, was shot and killed while driving her car on a street in Rio de Janeiro. She was 38 years old and a leading figure in the fight against institutional violence in Rio's favelas. The assassins fired 13 shots and also killed her driver.

[READ ALSO: #BRAZIL Marielle Franco was murdered: feminist, Afro-Brazilian, and lesbian councilwoman]

The police announcement caused surprise, as there had been no new developments in the investigation so far: in fact, a month ago Amnesty International published a report on the many unanswered questions surrounding the case and called for it to be investigated by an independent group, not linked to the local police.

Furthermore, it comes just as protests are being prepared to commemorate the first anniversary of the crime. These protests, taking place under the presidency of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, are expected to draw many opposition members and organizations, not only from the left but also from the feminist and LGBTI movements, which are stigmatized and persecuted by the new government.

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Political and planned crime

According to the prosecutors in charge of the investigation, the crime was “meticulously planned over three months” and “it is undeniable that Marielle Francisco da Silva was summarily executed because of her political activism in the causes she defended. The barbarity perpetrated on the night of March 14, 2018, was a blow to the democratic rule of law,” quoted the newspaper O Globo, which broke the news of the arrests.

The same media outlet reported that Lesso, the alleged hitman, coincidentally lived in the same neighborhood as Bolsonaro until he moved to Brasília; and that although he had never been convicted, he was suspected of having ties to organized crime. Investigators confirmed that he monitored the movements of the councilwoman and other figures on the Brazilian left.

Following the arrests, PSOL federal deputy and Franco's colleague, Talíria Beltrone, said that "while it is important to know who fired the shots," it is crucial that citizens mobilize in the protests called for the 14th to demand "an answer from the State about who ordered Marielle's murder, who organized the group that perpetrated this political execution."

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