A Brazilian rising political star's killing was a mystery -- until an explosive federal report
Revelations in a 500-page Federal Police report allege ties between a federal police chief and organized crime in the killing of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco.
April 1, 2024, 1:35 PM CDT / Source: The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO — Two days after Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco’s 2018 assassination, her widow sat down with the chief of the state’s civil police, Rivaldo Barbosa, who pledged to do everything in his power to hold the guilty parties to account.
In fact, the man Brazilian media once exalted as “Rio’s Sherlock” had the exact opposite intent, according to newly revealed allegations. Federal Police arrested Barbosa on March 24 — over six years later — for allegedly helping orchestrate Franco’s killing and taking money to obstruct the very investigation he would oversee.
“Hours after my wife’s murder, I was in front of a man who knew exactly what had happened and, more than that, who was part of ordering it,” Mônica Benício told TV Brasil through tears after his arrest.
The explosive revelations in the nearly 500-page Federal Police report offer an unprecedented glimpse into how organized crime has undermined Rio’s institutions and reveal the extent of corruption in a city where militias allegedly pay police to look away. The death of Franco, a rising political star who resisted militias’ expansion and fought for the poor, has driven home the consequences of allowing organized crime to run roughshod over Rio’s sprawling landscape.
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Federal Police say Barbosa tapped an officer to lead the capital’s homicide division whom he trusted to slow-walk and obstruct the investigation, while another accomplice induced a witness to give false testimony implicating a suspect they knew to be innocent.
More:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/killing-brazilian-politician-marielle-franco-exposes-alleged-ties-poli-rcna145876