Brazil, activist Marielle Franco murdered. She fought against violence in the favelas
Rights — di Andrea Barolini
Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco was killed on 14 March. She had spoken out against military violence in the favelas.
Brazil, activist Marielle Franco murdered. She fought against violence in the favelas
Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco was killed on 14 March. She had spoken out against military violence in the favelas.
Update 17 March, 12:00 – According to Brazil's main television broadcaster, TV Globo, the 9mm bullets that killed the Rio city councillor and her driver came from a batch that had been sold to the federal police in 2006. Even more disturbing is the fact that some of the bullets used in the massacre of 17 people near São Paulo in August 2015 came from the same stock. For the events of three years ago, three military personnel were convicted.
The federal police announced through a statement that they had opened an investigation in order to "assess the origin of the ammunition found at the crime scene". On Friday evening, Security Minister Raul Jungmann confirmed that the bullets came from those issued to the police, but stated that they had been stolen years ago in the northern state of Paraíba.
Marielle Franco, a 38-year-old Brazilian, was killed on Wednesday 14 March in the centre of Rio de Janeiro. She was travelling in a car and returning from a rally in support of Black women. A member of the Partido Socialismo e Libertade (Psol), she was a city councillor in her home city. For years she had fought for the rights of Black women.
More recently, she had denounced police violence inside the favelas and had spoken out forcefully against Brazilian president Michel Temer's decision to hand control of security in Rio to the army. Marielle Franco had spoken in no uncertain terms of "death squads" in reference to the military forces and their actions.
This was the last speech that Marielle Franco gave, just a few hours before she was killed. She warned people could not expect her to be a councillor for the next 10 years (via @BuzzFeedNewsBR)
From São Paulo to Belo Horizonte, Brazil gathered to remember Marielle Franco
The woman's death provoked an outpouring of emotion across Brazil: thousands upon thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets to voice their anger, from São Paulo to Belo Horizonte. Social media was quickly flooded with calls to take part in a "March against Black genocide".
The centre-right governor of the state of Rio, Luiz Fernando Pezão, described it as a "cowardly act", while the city's evangelical mayor, Marcelo Crivella, condemned the brutality of the crime. Amnesty International called for "an immediate and thorough investigation" so that "there is no doubt about the context, the motives behind the murder, and those responsible for it".