The recent arrest of the alleged masterminds of the murder of Afro-Brazilian councilor
Marielle Franco
, a crime that shocked the world six years ago, exposed more than ever some
very murky links
: those of politics and organized crime in Rio de Janeiro.
The investigative report of the Federal Police, a thick 500-page file, is full of revelations that seem taken from a mafia novel.
It describes in detail the functioning of the militias that spread terror in the popular neighborhoods of Brazil's postal city, with the
complicity of police officers and high-ranking politicians.
It was against these gangs that Marielle Franco raised her voice before being riddled with bullets in her car on March 14, 2018. The Rio councilor, from the favelas, died at the age of 38 along with her driver, Anderson Gomes.
"This is a fundamental investigation to understand the depth of the abyss in which Rio finds itself," former left-wing deputy Marcelo Freixo wrote on the social network X.
Marielle Franco considered Freixo her mentor, to whom she was a parliamentary assistant when he confronted these criminal organizations head-on.
"The investigations by the Federal Police show that the militias maintain a strong influence at the highest levels of the Rio police," Carolina Grillo, coordinator of the Study Group on New Illegalities (Geni) at the Federal University, told AFP. Fluminense.
A woman retouches a mural with the image of Marielle Franco, in a favela in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), in an archive image. Photo: EFE
that the public power plays an active role to favor the activities of the militias," he added.
Suspects and political ties
Arrested on Sunday, the brothers Domingos and Chiquinho Brazão are old acquaintances in Rio politics. Investigators link them directly to the militias.
The first was a local deputy and then advisor to the Rio Court of Accounts; the second, a city councilor, and is currently a federal deputy.
The third arrested suspect, Rivaldo Barbosa, is none other than the
former head of Rio's civil police
. The investigation was initially in charge of that authority, but last year it passed into the hands of the Federal Police.
According to investigators, the Brazão brothers hired Barbosa's services to
"ensure impunity in advance
. "
Appointed to the position on the eve of the murder, Barbosa would have ensured that "the investigation was stillborn" by hiding the traces.
His arrest was a 'shock' for Marielle Franco's relatives, who felt "betrayed" by the person who comforted them shortly after the crime.
"He told me that for him it was a matter of honor to resolve the case," Marinete da Silva, mother of the former councilor, told the GloboNews channel.
The three detainees claim to be innocent.
Marielle Franco in January 2018, months before being murdered in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AP
The investigation stalled for five years
, until the beginning of the mandate of social democratic president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who made clarification of the matter an electoral promise.
The terror of the militias in Rio
The militias have been spreading terror in Rio for about forty years. Created by former police officers, they began to establish themselves in popular neighborhoods in the west of the city, where
they presented themselves as community self-defense groups
to keep drug trafficking gangs at bay.
In addition to the "protection tax" on merchants, they have extended their extortion to all types of services, such as gas and internet.
But above all, they have taken over public land to illegally build homes and commercial buildings, so that the property is "their main source of income," explains Carolina Grillo.
According to the Federal Police,
they ordered the crime because Marielle Franco "threatened their interests."
The report also mentions "numerous indications" of the involvement of the Brazão brothers "in criminal militia activities related to the illegal appropriation of lands."
A police operation in the Maré favela, in Rio de Janeiro, in October 2023. Photo: EFE
The investigation "demonstrated the central importance of the land issue" in the control that the militias exercise over the neighborhoods where they settle, even "at the political level," emphasizes David Marques, of the NGO Brazilian Public Security Forum.
The areas dominated by these criminal groups have thus become electoral strongholds for politicians, as would be the case of the Brazão.
In 2008, when Marcelo Freixo created a parliamentary commission of inquiry in the Legislative Assembly of Rio, with the active participation of his then assistant Marielle Franco, the militias received a severe blow.
Dozens of people were detained, including local elected representatives.
But
these criminal groups "reformed quickly and resumed their growth,"
says Carolina Grillo.
For the Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, the revelations of the investigation represent an opportunity to "rethink" security policies "recovering control of the territories."
"For this, public policies are needed, because it is by taking advantage of this vacuum that the militias gain a foothold and sow terror," he said on Tuesday during a tribute to Marielle Franco in the Chamber of Deputies.
Source: AFP
C.B.