Two policemen accused of killing Brazilian adviser Marielle Franco were arrested

Two policemen were arrested Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro for their alleged involvement in the badbadination, almost a year ago, of the black adviser Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes, a case that shocked Brazil.

According to sources from the Homicide Division of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio, quoted by the portal G1, it is the sergeant of the military police (PM) Ronnie Lessa, accused of being the author of the shootings, and from a PM agent Helcio Vieira de Queiroz, suspected of being the driver of the vehicle from which they were manufactured.

Franco and Anderson were shot dead on March 14, 2018 in downtown Rio. Sociologist of the favelas of Maré, one of the most violent neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, aged 38, he had criticized the police violence as rapporteur of the commission of inquiry on the military intervention decreed a month earlier by the government in the most emblematic state of Brazil

His badbadination, suspected of involving paramilitary groups known as "militias", has caused a profound upheaval in the world and his figure has become an icon of the struggle for equality, especially women's rights. black.

In December, Rio de Janeiro Public Security Secretary Richard Nunes told the newspaper O State of S.Paulo that the double murder was related to Marielle's role in militia-controlled communities, self-defense groups consisting of agents and former security agents operating in poor areas by extorting money from the police. 39; money.

The "very solid" thesis of the researchers is that Marielle "was fighting in a certain area of ​​Rio controlled by militia, where economic interests of all kinds are at stake (…) What leads to the badbadination of the counselor and the driver is this perception that It would endanger the interests of these criminal groups in this region ", Nunes said, referring to the region where the operation took place on Tuesday.

In the western zone of Rio "there are serious problems of urbanization, land use (…)". Franco's job was "to sensitize people to land ownership, which has caused instability and we are going there," he added.

(With information from AFP and EFE)