Marielle Franco

Marielle Franco (born Marielle Francisco da Silva, 27 July 1979 – 14 March 2018) was a Brazilian politician, sociologist, feminist, socialist and human rights activist.

Franco was raised in Maré, a slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, where she also resided for most of her life, and began to work to contribute to the household income in 1990 when she was 11 years old.

She had a sister, Anielle.

Marielle gave birth to her first and only child in 1998 when she was 19 years old.

Franco raised her daughter without the father's help and worked as a pre-school teacher on a minimum wage.

In 2000, she began her pre-university studies.

Following the death of a friend from a stray bullet in 2000, Franco began working in human rights activism.

Each suspect received honors from president Jair Bolsonaro's son Flávio Bolsonaro in the early 2000s.

In 2002, she entered the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro on a scholarship and continued working and raising her daughter as she worked towards a degree in social sciences.

She subsequently earned a master's degree in public administration from the Fluminense Federal University.

Her master's thesis (titled "UPP: The Reduction of the Favela to Three Letters") concerns the law enforcement program to retake control of Rio's favelas from gangs.

In 2004, Franco, who throughout her career fought for LGBT rights, started a romantic relationship with Monica Benicio.

The bullets that killed Franco are from a batch bought by the federal police in Brasília in 2006; Minister of Public Security Raul Jungmann later said that they were stolen from a post office storage facility in Paraíba, but the ministry subsequently retracted this explanation after the Post Office publicly denied it.

Beginning in 2007, Franco worked as a consultant for the state representative Marcelo Freixo, and she coordinated the state legislature's Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and Citizenship.

She also worked for civil society organizations, including the Brazil Foundation and the Maré Center for Solidarity Studies and Action.

In 2016, Franco ran for a seat on the Rio de Janeiro city council in the municipal elections.

As a black woman and single mother from the favelas, Franco positioned herself as a representative and defender of poor black women and people from the favelas.

With over 46,500 votes, Franco was one of the 51 representatives elected, receiving the fifth highest vote total out of more than 1,500 candidates.

As a city council member, Franco fought against violence against women, for reproductive rights, and for the rights of favela residents.

She chaired the Women's Defense Commission and formed part of a four-person committee that monitored the federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro.

Franco served as a city councillor of the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro for the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) from January 2017 until her assassination.

In 2017, the couple decided to move in together in the Tijuca neighborhood with Luyara, Marielle's daughter.

Working with the Rio de Janeiro Lesbian Front, Franco presented a bill to create a day of lesbian visibility in Rio de Janeiro in August 2017, but the bill was defeated by a vote of 19–17.

On 14 March 2018, while in a car after delivering a speech in the north of Rio de Janeiro, Franco and her driver were shot multiple times and killed by two murderers travelling in another vehicle.

Franco had been an outspoken critic of police brutality and extrajudicial killings, as well as the February 2018 federal intervention by Brazilian president Michel Temer in the state of Rio de Janeiro which resulted in the deployment of the army in police operations.

Their wedding was scheduled for the end of 2018.

On 13 March 2018, Franco spoke out on Twitter against the police violence in Rio de Janeiro: "Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end?"

The next day, Franco attended a round-table discussion titled "Young Black Women Moving [Power] Structures" (Jovens Negras Movendo Estruturas).

Less than two hours after leaving the round-table, she and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were fatally shot by two men who were driving another car.

The men fired nine shots at them, four of which struck Franco – three in the head and one in the neck.

Franco's press officer was next to her in the back seat and was injured, but survived.

Marcelo Freixo, a Rio de Janeiro legislative assembly member from PSOL who came to the scene shortly after hearing of her killing, determined that the bullets had been directed at her in a clear execution.

According to the Rio de Janeiro police, the direction of the nine shots supports the hypothesis that Franco was assassinated.

Nóbrega's wife and mother were still being employed in Flávio Bolsonaro's office in 2018.

In March 2019, two former police officers were arrested and charged with the murder of Marielle Franco.

In January 2019, police arrested Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira and issued a warrant for Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega, both suspects in Franco's assassination.

In March 2019, police arrested two suspects, former members of the military police allegedly tied to a vigilante militia, for the murder.

Prior to their arrest, both suspects had pictures taken with former President Jair Bolsonaro, and one was his neighbor at a luxury apartment complex in Rio.

In November 2019, following leaked reports that President Bolsonaro had been in touch with one of the main suspects of the shooting, a number of Brazilian media outlets reported that police were investigating possible ties of his second son, Carlos, to the case.

In 2020, then governor of Rio de Janeiro Wilson Witzel admitted to have interfered in investigations of her death on television.