{"id":8771,"date":"2024-03-24T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T18:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/24\/police-say-theyve-cracked-rio-de-janeiros-most-notorious-murder-mystery\/"},"modified":"2024-03-24T18:00:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T18:00:26","slug":"police-say-theyve-cracked-rio-de-janeiros-most-notorious-murder-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/24\/police-say-theyve-cracked-rio-de-janeiros-most-notorious-murder-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Say They\u2019ve Cracked Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Most Notorious Murder Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/24\/multimedia\/24brazil-arrests-01-wkjf\/24brazil-arrests-01-wkjf-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Police Say They\u2019ve Cracked Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Most Notorious Murder Mystery\" title=\"Police Say They\u2019ve Cracked Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Most Notorious Murder Mystery\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWho killed Marielle Franco?\u201d That has been the question <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/14\/world\/americas\/marielle-year-death.html\" title=\"\">haunting Rio de Janeiro<\/a> for the past six years, ever since <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/15\/world\/americas\/killing-of-rio-de-janeiro-councilwoman-critical-of-police-rattles-brazil.html\" title=\"\">a gunman assassinated<\/a> the Black, gay, feminist councilwoman who had fought the city\u2019s entrenched corruption and powerful gangs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But now her family and the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/18\/world\/americas\/marielle-franco-rio-de-janeiro-protest-brazil.html\" title=\"\">thousands of supporters who have taken to the streets<\/a> in Ms. Franco\u2019s name appear to have an answer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Brazilian police officers on Sunday morning arrested Chiquinho and Domingos Braz\u00e3o \u2014 two brothers who once served on Rio\u2019s City Council, as did Ms. Franco \u2014 on accusations that they ordered her 2018 murder to silence her battles against corruption, according to a police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operation had not been officially announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The police also arrested Rivaldo Barbosa, the former Rio police chief who initially oversaw the investigation into Ms. Franco\u2019s killing, on accusations that he intentionally obstructed it, the official said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Court documents with the recommended charges against the men remained sealed on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ubiratan Guedes, the lawyer representing Domingos Braz\u00e3o, denied the accusations against his client. \u201cHe did not know Marielle, had no connection with Marielle,\u201d he told reporters on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawyers for Mr. Barbosa said they needed more time to review the accusations. Lawyers for Chiquinho Braz\u00e3o, who served on Rio\u2019s council at the same time as Ms. Franco and is now a federal congressman, did not comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Franco and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were murdered in March 2018 when a gunman sprayed their car with bullets as they left an event focused on empowering Black women. Ms. Franco, 38, had been one of Brazil\u2019s rising political stars. She grew up in a favela \u2014 the deeply impoverished neighborhoods in Rio\u2019s hillsides \u2014 and rose to become the only Black woman who was elected in 2016 to Rio\u2019s City Council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She quickly became perhaps the loudest voice against Rio\u2019s notorious violence, arguing it was rooted in deep inequality and a corrupt, brutal police force. She also <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/05\/22\/opinion\/rio-janeiro-terrorize-militias.html\" title=\"\">took on Rio\u2019s militias<\/a>, the criminal paramilitary groups founded by former police officers that control many favelas and extort their residents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When that made her a target, Ms. Franco was defiant. One night in March 2018, she posted online about the suspected police killing of a young Black man as he left a church, writing, \u201cHow many more must die for this war to end?\u201d She was killed the next night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since then, her murder has become a rallying cry for activists across Brazil, with \u201cWho killed Marielle Franco?\u201d emblazoned across murals, T-shirts and protest banners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After Ms. Franco\u2019s death, her sister, Anielle Franco, rose to fame as an anti-violence activist on a crusade for justice. She became Brazil\u2019s first minister of racial equality last year. In a television interview on Sunday, Anielle Franco said that the long fight to remember Ms. Franco and find her killers shows \u201cwe are responding to political violence, to the favela residents who voted for Marielle, and to the women who courageously entered the political arena in a system that tells us this isn\u2019t for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before Sunday\u2019s arrests, the police had arrested four other suspects in the assassination, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/12\/world\/americas\/marielle-arrest-rio.html\" title=\"\">including two former police officers<\/a>. One of those, Ronnie Lessa, is accused of shooting Ms. Franco and Mr. Gomes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court confirmed a plea deal for Mr. Lessa last week, meaning his confession could be used in the investigation. Mr. Lessa\u2019s lawyers then dropped him as a client.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When that news stirred speculation in the press that the Braz\u00e3o brothers could soon be arrested, the brothers publicly denied they had been involved in the crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Chiquinho Braz\u00e3o served with Ms. Franco on Rio\u2019s 51-seat council and was elected to Congress shortly after her killing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Domingos Braz\u00e3o was a Rio city councilor from 1997 to 1999 before moving on to Rio\u2019s state legislature and then the state court system. Over 25 years in public office, he has faced police accusations of vote-buying and homicide, which were later dropped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Marcelo Freixo, a former Rio city councilor who helped introduce Ms. Franco to politics, said Sunday in a television interview that he was not surprised at the accusations that such senior officials were involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019ve long stated that crime, police and politics are inextricably linked in Rio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWho killed Marielle Franco?\u201d That has been the question haunting Rio de Janeiro for the past six years, ever since a gunman assassinated the Black, gay, feminist councilwoman who had fought the city\u2019s entrenched corruption and powerful gangs. But now her family and the thousands of supporters who have taken to the streets in Ms. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/24\/multimedia\/24brazil-arrests-01-wkjf\/24brazil-arrests-01-wkjf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13576,13578,876,1158,13579,6273,13577,13575],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8773,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8771\/revisions\/8773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}