Latin America

By Steven Grattan
July 24, 20239:56 AM CDT
Updated 2 hours ago

SAO PAULO, July 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian police on Monday arrested another suspect in connection with the 2018 murder of popular Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, acting on a plea bargain confession by an arrested suspect.

A preventive arrest warrant and seven search and seizure warrants were served, Justice Minister Flavio Dino confirmed in a press conference in the capital Brasilia.

The man arrested was named as former firefighter Maxwell Simoes Correia, and he is suspected of hiding the weapons used by the ex-police suspects who are on trial over the shooting, according to Dino.

In March 2019, two former police officers, Ronnie Lessa and Elcio de Queiroz, were indicted on charges of shooting Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes. They remain in federal prison custody.

The minister said that Queiroz, who is accused of driving the car used in the crime, made a plea bargain with police and prosecutors and said he was an accessory to the crime and confirmed that Lessa was involved in the murder.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazilian-police-arrest-new-suspect-2018-murder-rio-councilwoman-2023-07-24/





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Brazilians Protest Assassination of Marielle Franco

Photo Credit: Midia Ninja

Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets last week throughout the country to express their grief and protest the murder of militant and councilwoman Marielle Franco (of the Socialism and Freedom Party, PSOL) and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes.

Throughout the day in the World Social Forum -WSF-, which took place last week in Salvador, Bahia, people paid homage to Franco. Activities were interrupted in several occasions to speak against the murders of Marielle and Anderson, who were executed in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday 14 in Rio de Janeiro. Afterwards, protesters marched on the streets of the Bahian capital.

At the WSF, former President Dilma Rousseff, linked the murder to the soft coup by which current President Michel Temer arrived into power: “there is no coup without violence and barbarism”, she said. “What happened to Marielle Franco was a murder, an execution” and “must fill us with the most profound indignation”.

. . .

“Marielle was murdered by the State and by the elite class, who couldn’t stand to see a black woman from the favelas taking the lead. They did this to try to silence the voice of women, but listen to this, look at this crowd, look at the world: they will have to silence millions of people!,” she said.

More:
https://change-links.org/brazilians-protest-assassination-of-marielle-franco/





Anderson Gomez, driving the car for Marielle Franco, was shot three times in the back, also. He and his wife, Agatha, were new parents.