The federal police, together with the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, made official the arrest of Maxwell Simones Correa, a former firefighter suspected of having participated in the murder of the coastal state councilor in 2018. The arrest follows the confessions of Élcio Queiroz, one of the material authors of the crime captured in March 2019.
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The statements by Queiroz, a former police sergeant, took place in the federal prison of Brasilia, where the material author of the murder confirmed his participation in the crime and gave more details about the others involved in the death of Marielle Franco. That is when the name of Maxwell Simones Correa comes to rest on the table.
Correa had already been sentenced by the Brazilian Justice to four years in prison in 2021, when prosecutors alleged that the former firefighter would have obstructed Justice by hindering the investigations of the Brazilian state, although he was serving his sentence in an open regime with home prison.
According to Queiroz’s narration, Correa would have been the owner of a vehicle where the former along with Ronnie Lessa, a former Brazilian sergeant also captured in 2019, kept the weapons with which they perpetrated the incident, in addition to covering up other evidence that incriminated the murderers.
“Maxwell helps with the crime both before, in the maintenance and guarding of the car, and in the surveillance of the councilor. After the crime, he helps the perpetrators to change the license plates of the vehicle, he also helps when contacting the person who was in charge of getting rid of the car,” said Eduardo Morais, one of the prosecutors in charge of the case.
“Who ordered to kill Marielle?”
Through a post on her Twitter account, the current Minister of Racial Equality in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and sister of Marielle, Anielle Franco, expressed her “confidence” in the investigations into the case, recently reopened with the arrival of the progressive president to power. Despite the advances, the minister asks a question: “Who ordered the killing of Marielle and why?”
The answer to this question remains an enigma for Anielle Franco and for the Brazilian people. Prosecutor Morais mentions that the detainees claim to have been “disgusted” by the political causes defended by Marielle, although the Brazilian Justice body theorizes that the murder of the councilor was a “commission”.
I now spoke by phone with Minister Flávio Dino and General Director of the Federal Police about the news of the Marielle and Anderson case. I reaffirm my confidence in the conduct of the investigation by the PF and I repeat the question that I have been doing for 5 years: who ordered Marielle to be killed and why?
— Anielle Franco (@aniellefranco) July 24, 2023
The Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, appeared before the local media in the Brazilian capital, where he affirmed that the police forces are close to “clarifying all the aspects related to this barbaric crime.”
A crime that Brazilians do not forget
Marielle Franco was born on July 27, 1979 and was a Brazilian political activist who advocated for the rights of women, racialized people and the LGBTIQ+ population, as well as being a fervent opponent of the militarization of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro during the presidential term of Michel Temer.
The ‘favela kid’, as she called herself, was brutally shot dead along with her driver as they returned from a political rally in Rio de Janeiro. Ronnie Lessa would have been the one who fired more than 10 bullets at Franco’s car, while Élcio Queiroz was the driver of the vehicle that followed the councilor.
Both Queiroz and Lessa have been linked to criminal militias in Rio de Janeiro, and according to the former’s confessions, they would have been following Marielle Franco’s footsteps since 2017, a year before her death. Five years after Franco’s death, the truth seems to be closer to coming to light.
With local media
