Brazil's progressive civil society and those close to it have kept alive for the last six years the key question to solve the most relevant political murder of recent times in the country.
“Who ordered the killing of [councilwoman] Marielle Franco?”, Murdered in 2018 along with her driver in an execution carried out by professionals in Rio de Janeiro.
The answer came this Sunday at dawn, 2,002 days after the crime, with the arrest of two suspects of ordering the murder: the Brazão brothers, two shady and powerful political bosses from Rio de Janeiro.
A former police commissioner has also been arrested for obstructing the investigation.
The councilor's sister, Anielle Franco, a minister in the current Government, congratulated herself in a tweet: “Only God knows how much we dream of this day (…).
We are closer to justice!
Great day!".
The Federal Police are looking for nine other suspects.
Chiquinho Brazão, 62, is a federal deputy – which is why the case is now in the hands of the Supreme Court – with a long political career.
He previously briefly held a high position in the Rio City Council and was a councilor in the Rio City Council for four terms.
During the last one he met Marielle Franco.
His brother Domingos Brazão, 59, is a counselor at the Rio Audit Court, although he has been out of office for six years due to suspicions of corruption.
For now there is no solid information about the motives behind the murder.
The third detainee is Rivaldo Barbosa, who on the eve of the crime made his debut as chief commissioner of the Rio Civil Police, that is, the body in charge of investigating murders.
He was already identified, in a confidential report unknown until now, by the first commissioner who handled the Marielle case, who asked that he be investigated because he suspected that he had received a bribe of 400,000 reais ($80,000) to hinder the investigations.
The arrest of the alleged masterminds of the notorious crime is the result of the testimony of the hitman who pulled the trigger, who recently confessed to the police after five years in prison without opening his mouth.
Months before, he confessed to being his main accomplice.
The arrest of the former police commissioner has surprised much more than that of the Brazãos, whose names have been heard in relation to this case for a long time and are dotted with all kinds of suspicions and corruption.
Both have belonged to the underworld of the wonderful city for decades.
Marinete da Silva, mother of the Franco sisters, has declared that her daughter Anielle, 39, the Minister of Racial Equality in the Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, trusted the now detained police chief commissioner.
“He told us that solving this case was a matter of honor for him.
When you experience something like this with an authority that should do his job, it is even more difficult,” she told Globonews this Sunday.
A reflection of the explosive potential of the case is that, in these six years, five commissioners have been in charge of the investigation.
The councilor left an enormous and distributed political legacy.
The status of political symbol acquired by Marielle illuminated the political career of her little sister - her minister - and her widow, Mónica Benício, who is a councilor in Rio.
The victim also served as inspiration for a crop of black deputies and councilors forged in social movements in favelas throughout Brazil.
Marielle Franco was a veteran activist raised in Rio's Maré favela with a short career as a councilor when she was murdered on March 14, 2018 in central Rio.
At 38, she was a political novice unknown outside of Rio.
Her driver, Anderson Torres, died with her.
It was immediately clear that this was the work of professionals.
The murderer required unusual skill and aim because the victims were driving in a car and they were shot from another car that was positioned next to her.
The street cameras, in the center of Rio, were not working that night.
The murder turned Marielle – black, bisexual, mother of a teenager and married to a woman – into a unifying symbol of the left.
Those were the months in which the far-right was gaining strength thanks to Jair Bolsonaro, who won the elections that year and whose name was thrown around in relation to the case.
During all these years, Eliane Brum, a prominent Brazilian journalist and columnist for EL PAÍS, has kept track of the days that have passed since the crime — previously on Twitter, now on X — and has tweeted as if in a litany: Who ordered the killing of Marielle?
And because?".
Also this Sunday.
2,202 days.
6 years+
What did you want to kill Marielle?
And why?
— Eliane Brum (@brumelianebrum) March 24, 2024
The first significant advance – the only relevant one until this Sunday – occurred on the first anniversary.
Two military police were arrested.
Ronnie Lessa, who became a contract killer after standing out in the police for his marksmanship, was accused of shooting the councilor and her driver.
Élcio Queiroz was identified as the driver of the car.
Both went to jail, it was announced that they would be tried by a popular jury, but that was not the case.
Many were interested in the material authors only as a way to reach the intellectual authors.
During these years there have been endless rumors and speculations, little verified progress and a trickle of murders considered what they call
burning of archives
here .
Several suspects of having participated in various phases of the crime as laborers were shot dead, including the man accused of getting rid of the murderers' car or cloning the license plate.
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