Note from BW of Brazil: Yesterday, March 14th, marked one month since Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco was murdered along with her driver Anderson Gomes. While investigations are ongoing, thus far no arrests have been made and the crime remains unsolved although there was recently another murder that many believe is connected to the case. The murder still weighs heavily on the hearts of the people and in remembrance of Franco and Gomes, more than 20 cities across Brazil scheduled demonstrations in support and memory of the victims.
Act recalls life and death of Marielle and Anderson in João Pessoa
Today (13) in the afternoon, the inter-religious and multicultural act “#30DiasPor- MarielleEAnderson” takes place. The event will start at 2pm in the courtyard of the Basílica Nossa Senhora das Neves and will include the participation of entities, social movements, political parties, parliamentarians, religious representations and cultural activists.
This act is part of a national movement and seeks to remember the life and death of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes, in addition to reinforcing social-political agendas. In the manifesto of the meeting, the organizers of the event point to the death of Marielle and Anderson as a blow against the fragile democratic structure of Brazil, which also served to make evident the violence that reaches our people. “Marielle was a needed target for all the patriarchal structure and arrogance of sexist, racist and lesbophobic authoritarianism constructed into the mind of a large part of the Brazilian people”, say the organizers of the act.
The message of convocation to the act also explains that Marielle was a representation of the woman who does not bend in the face of patriarchate, the hetero-normativity nor to racism.
They classify her as the protagonist of her own path of empowerment and also say that she “not only assumed her blackness with pride, she also denounced the systematic genocide of the black population“. For the representatives of the act, as a councilwoman, Marielle put her mandate at the service of democracy.
Death of Marielle Franco completes one month without answers
Courtesy of Terra
The murder of Councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes, completed one month this Saturday (14) without answers. The event, which led the crowds in the streets around the world to express solidarity and demand explanations, is treated with absolute confidentiality by researchers.
In recent days, a new execution and evidence found by the team of the homicide division (DH) of the Civil Police of Rio and the state Public Ministry (MP) reinforced suspicions about two lines of research, linked to the involvement of militia and colleagues of Marielle in Rio’s city council.
Civil and federal police who are investigating the case collected partial fingerprints on nine round capsules found by experts at the scene of the crime. The marks may have been left by the author of the shots or the person responsible for inserting the bullets in the 9mm gun used to execute Marielle and Anderson.
Among the material analyzed, there was a single bullet that was not part of the batch of UZZ 18 ammunition re-directed from the Federal Police. According to researchers heard by the O Globo newspaper, it is ammunition that’s part of an imported shipment, with special characteristics, similar to another capsule found in the case of a murder that happened in the municipality of São Gonçalo, in the Metropolitan Region of Rio.
One of the agents heard by the newspaper said that “there is DNA of a paramilitary group in crime.” Because of being fragmented, fingerprints cannot be compared with the database of Federal and Civil Police. However, it would be possible to compare them with a possible suspect.
The analysis of the capsules dates back to other crimes committed in the metropolitan region. The use of ammunition of batch UZZ 18 was detected in three of the 14,574 intentional homicides registered in the state between 2014 and 2017. The actions, which resulted in five deaths occurred in São Gonçalo, Niterói and on the border between the two municipalities.
After the passing of the news, the Minister of Public Security, Raul Jungmann, claimed to have seen advances in investigations into the murders of Marielle and Anderson. According to the minister, the teams that are working on the case are confident in identifying those responsible for ordering the execution of councilwoman.
“There was a narrowing of the hypotheses. When I talk to researchers, I feel that they are excited, confident in getting put in jail not only those executed, but also come to the principals of this crime which shocked all of us,” commented.
On 6 April, the commander of the federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro, general Braga Netto, revealed advances in research after meeting with President Michel Temer. On that occasion, he showed optimism with the outcome of the case in the coming days. According to the general, after listening to the report, Temer said that the arrest of the murderers of councilwoman is considered of extreme importance for the government.
New Execution
With the objective of investigating the routine of Marielle in the Câmara Municipal (City Council) of Rio, DH Civil Police have summoned councilmen to testify about the case. Until now, eight have already been heard, of a total of 14 called.
Last Sunday, two days after Marcello Siciliano (PHS) provide evidence for three hours to agents of the DH, a community leader who provided services for his term was murdered. Carlos Alexandre Pereira, 37, was suspected of connection with a militia of the West Zone of the city. In his Facebook profile, he is identified as “Parliamentary Assistant” to Siciliano. To the press, the councilman lamented his death and stressed that he was only an assistant.
Among the councilors summoned by the DH, there were cohorts of Marielle, such as Tarcísio Motta, the PSOL candidate for governor in the last election state, and political opponents. Siciliano included himself in the second group. He was cited in a report by the Secretariat of Security on the influence of militia in the elections of 2014, when he ran for Congress, without success.
A personal friend of the councilwoman, Tarcísio expressed confidence in investigations when providing testimony last Thursday. “We don’t have any element until the moment that discredits the actions of the chief of police or the DH. There is nothing that points to negligence or deliberate delays in the investigation. As we were of the same party and we had intimacy, they asked me questions about the parliamentary activity of Marielle, her routine her and political activities,” he explained.
Complex case
Heard by DW Brasil, state deputy Marcelo Freixo (PSOL), with whom Marielle worked for eleven years before you running for Rio city council, said that the party has done everything possible to cooperate with the investigations.
“Any document that they need, any person that they want to hear, we accelerate. We are always clarifying any doubt about the last steps of Marielle, documents that she has produced, speeches,” he said.
Freixo expressed understanding with the lack of solutions for the case a month after the executions. “A work that we are doing is to hold our anguish, because we want you to solve it fast, but the investigations have another pace. The case of Patricia Accioly, much less complex, took two months. That of Elias Maluco, six. We are talking about the most complex case in the history of the DH,” he recalled.
Finally, the congressman expressed confidence in the team ahead of the research. “We don’t have the slightest doubt that they will find out. We followed closely and I, in particular, talk with the commissioners. I don’t know if they are close to a conclusion, but I am seeing a very, very dedicated team working,” he said.
Marielle Franco and the driver Anderson Gomes were murdered on March 14th after the councilwoman had participated in a debate with black women in the neighborhood of Lapa, in Rio’s downtown region. The crime happened at Estácio, a few kilometers away, where the car was targeted by nine shots, four of which struck the councilwoman.
According to friends and family, she was not suffering persecution in the period preceding the crime. A few days before, she had denounced the violence of the 41st Battalion of the Military Police in the slums of Acari, in the northern zone of the city.
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