Five years ago, the Brazilian Marielle Franco, a well-known human rights defender, was murdered. She was a councilor for the Rio de Janeiro city council, a black activist and an open lesbian. After five years of the crime, the case remains unresolved and her relatives are still waiting for Justice. For Amnesty International, Franco’s is a portrait of the impunity that is rampant in Brazil.
Marielle Franco was more than an activist, she was a reference in the fight against injustice and in defense of the rights of the poorest, of the Afro community and of the LGBTQI+ community.
On March 14, 2018, she was murdered along with Anderson Gomes, the driver of the car that was transporting her back from a political event for Afro women in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
The event strongly moved Brazil and the international community, but five years after the crime, Justice has still not managed to identify the intellectual authors of the murder, nor has it clarified their motives or motives.
“For us it is unfortunate. Brazil is the fourth country in the world that kills the most human rights defenders. That is why the murder of Marielle, without solution five years later, is a living portrait of, as we say in Brazil, ‘Here you kill and it’s like nothing,'” says Amnesty International’s executive director for Brazil, Jurema Werneck.
In 2019, authorities arrested two former police officers accused of being the material perpetrators of the crime, but neither have been tried or convicted. In addition, those who gave the order for the murder have not been identified, nor have the motives for the crime been clarified.
“It’s been five years without that smile. Who ordered Marielle to be killed and why?”, the eternal question, as tweeted this Monday, March 13, by the Marielle Franco Institute, an organization created by the activist’s family with the aim of seeking and pressing for Justice.
“Both the material authors of the crime and the intellectuals must be prosecuted, tried and must be held accountable,” Amnesty International Brazil published in a report.
Five teams of prosecutors, but no progress
A fifth team of prosecutors was appointed as the person in charge of the investigation and already met with the relatives of Marielle Franco last Thursday, but they did not announce any news.
“There are already more than a dozen prosecutors involved in the case in five years; three presidents of the Republic, three governors (of Rio de Janeiro), three attorney generals, three commissioners… and no response,” Werneck said. .
⏰#ÉHoraDeFazerJustica! 5 years ago, the deaths of Marielle and Anderson collided in Brazil and the world. If this story is a “series”, we would have several seasons and episodes of lack of transparency and injustice. ⚠️ We still continue without answers! pic.twitter.com/fCTmbVj0Jr
— Anistia International Brazil ? (@anistiabrasil) March 13, 2023
“Five years ago, the deaths of Marielle and Anderson shocked Brazil and the world. If this story were a series, we would already have several seasons and episodes of lack of transparency and injustice. We still don’t have answers!” Amnesty International Brazil tweeted on Monday.
“Feminist, black woman and daughter of the favela”
Marielle Franco was born on July 27, 1979 in the Complexo da Maré, a favela of almost 150,000 inhabitants in the north of Rio de Janeiro. Although she started working for civil society organizations, she quickly decided to go into politics after seeing one of her friends die, hit by a stray bullet in a shootout between drug traffickers and police.
In 2006 he began working for the Socialism and Freedom Party and supported the candidacy of Marcelo Freixo, a candidate for the Rio state legislative elections. When he was elected, Franco was in charge of coordinating the Defense of Human Rights and Citizenship.
In 2016, she ran for the municipal elections in Rio, which she won widely in her constituency, becoming a municipal councilor. She was in charge of security issues in the favelas.
Marielle Franco was a virulent critic of the actions of the forces of order, especially those in charge of appeasing, with blood and fire on many occasions, the favelas of Rio.
“Feminist, black woman and daughter of the favela”, she defined herself. She always defended the rights of women and the LGBTIQ + community. She was a young mother and opened debates on gender issues, the protection of reproductive rights, the defense of the LGBTIQ + collective, and the fight against racism.
A political assassination?
Marielle was murdered at the age of 38 with four 9-millimeter bullets to the head, while she was sitting in the back of the car that was transporting her. Politics, due to its influence in the fight for the rights of minorities, was a target for the extreme right, the armed groups of the favelas and those who did not accept its sexual condition and activism.
Many organizations denounce a possible political character to his murder. In fact, a few days before she was assassinated, she had publicly denounced the actions of the military police in the Favela de Acari, in Rio de Janeiro.
“Marielle was cut short when she was a mother, a woman, a councilor, a daughter, a godmother and a sister. She didn’t see her daughter graduate from her, her sister get a master’s degree and become a minister of state; she did not see or experience small daily joys with Monica, her partner, ”recalls Amnesty International in its report.
“It is necessary to remember that Brazil is the fourth country in the world in the murder of human rights defenders and most of the cases go unpunished, which shows that the institutions do not manage to respond up to the task”, affirms Jurema Werneck.
His family continues to fight for Justice, especially through the foundation they created.
Meanwhile, many are hoping that the arrival of Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva to power can help clear up the case. The new president appointed Marielle’s sister, Anielle Franco, as his Minister for Racial Equality, and asked the Federal Police to create a support group to advance the investigations.
With EFE and Amnesty International
