Brazil's federal police arrested on Sunday the men suspected of ordering the killing of a Rio de Janeiro councilwoman in 2018.
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2018 file photo, Rio de Janeiro Councilwoman Marielle Franco smiles for a photo in Cinelandia square. Brazil's federal police arrested on Sunday the men suspected of ordering the killing of a Rio de Janeiro councilwoman in 2018, a long-awaited step after years of society clamoring for justice.
The investigation into Franco's murder had been troubled for years. Rio's state civil police couldn't break the case after the arrest and indictment of the shooter and the driver. The lead detectives were changed four times until February 2023, when federal authorities took control. Franco, the councilwoman, worked as an assistant to then-state lawmaker Marcelo Freixo in 2008, as he presided over a special committee investigating militias in Rio's state assembly. Freixo's final report indicted 226 suspected militia members and politicians and government employees, including Domingos Brazão. While Brazão was mentioned in the report, he wasn't indicted.
She stood out as one of the only Black women on the council and, while her assertiveness and mere presence ruffled some, she remained unbowed. The brutality of the slaying and the political hope she had embodied transformed her into a symbol of left-wing resistance in Brazil and abroad: People staged massive protests to channel their outrage; her silhouette was painted on walls across Brazil and printed on T-shirts; her name figures on a street sign in front of Rio's city council; a public garden in Paris is named for her; and her sister, Anielle Franco, has been appointed Brazil's minister of racial equality.
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