Marielle Franco: politician’s murder sparks mass protests in Brazil

Tens of thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets of Rio de Janiero to protest the murder of Marielle Franco, a city councillor and prominent human rights activist.

The 38-year-old and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were gunned down in an apparent assassination on Wednesday night after leaving an empowerment event for black women.

Franco’s death has “reverberated across the city and beyond as thousands of people gathered at rallies, expressed their outrage on Twitter and wept openly in public”, the LA Times reports.

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As a gay black woman raised in one of Rio’s poorest favelas, Franco “defied the odds” to win the fifth-highest vote count among council members when she was elected in 2016, The Guardian says.

She championed the rights of the most marginalised in Rio, especially poor women of colour and members of the LGBTQ community, and was a vocal critic of police violence.

A Rio public prosecutor who wished to remain anonymous said Franco’s killing appeared to be politically motivated.

“It is far too soon to say, but we are obviously looking at this as a murder in response to her political work, that is a main theory,” the prosecutor told Reuters.

Her murder comes just weeks after President Michel Temer ordered the army to take over security in Rio de Janeiro, following months of worsening gang violence.

Franco, who was part of a commission to oversee the military intervention, “harshly criticised the move” just days before her death, warning that it could worsen police violence against residents, Reuters reports.