It seems that we are approaching the resolution of the crime that killed councilor Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes.
It was already known who had carried out the crime, but the perpetrators and motivation were missing. The investigations reached the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and there the plea bargain of Ronie Lessa, Marielle’s executor, was approved. In this accusation, the Brazão brothers were implicated – Chiquinho (federal deputy) and Domingos (Advisor of the Rio State Court of Auditors) –, as well as Rivaldo Barbosa, who headed the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro at the time of the murders.
Regarding motivation, investigations by the Federal Police (PF) indicate that Marielle was killed for her actions against a land allotment scheme in areas dominated by the militia in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
From the crime to the last arrests, symbolically, in the political field, it was time for a question that had no answer: “Who killed Marielle?” Ideology, political positions, fake news and different conspiracy theories populated the popular imagination and political actors.
According to Luiz Carlos Azedo, journalist and keen analyst of Brazilian politics, “The arrest of federal deputy Chiquinho Brazão, who has a privileged jurisdiction, breaks the shield of the mafia scheme, because the case is in the Supreme Court, it has left the sphere of justice in Rio de Janeiro” . Furthermore, according to Azedo: “These connections are known in police, legal and political circles, but they were shielded by the depth and extent of organized crime and the pact of silence between the authorities in Rio de Janeiro. Most do not speak out because they are afraid of dying, as happened to Marielle.” Minister Gilmar Mendes, from the STF, faced with the facts, said that it is necessary to refound political institutions and public security bodies in Rio de Janeiro.
The scenario of Brazilian violence is one of the topics of greatest concern to citizens and this is, empirically, captured and demonstrated through research. In introductory Political Science classes, among many of the authors who deal with the State, we have, in Max Weber, an important definition: the State is characterized by the legitimate monopoly of violence. Thus, only the State and its institutions can, within the law, through its Armed Forces and police, exercise violence, if necessary. Therefore, a drug dealer and a militiaman, for example, have power (they have weapons and the capacity for coercion, intimidation and even fatal attacks), but they do not have authority – which is an authorized power, based on laws, in a Democratic State right.
Unfortunately, in Rio de Janeiro, the boundaries between power, authority, State, violence, crime and institutions are dissolving, creating what, in Sociology, is defined as anomie, a state in which there is a clear absence of norms, rules and bonds of solidarity within society. In fact, contradictorily, anomie has become normal.
Refounding Rio de Janeiro’s political institutions and security bodies, as Gilmar Mendes asserted, is urgent, without a doubt. The point is that it involves a complex relationship between institutions, political culture and the culture and behavior of individuals and groups. How, finally, can you fix the engine while the car is moving and accelerating? A suggested reading, if you allow me: “The republic of militias”, by Bruno Paes Manso, from Editora Todavia, 2020.
*The content of the signed articles does not necessarily represent the opinion of DC – Diário Carioca
Rodrigo Augusto Prando, Professor and Researcher at Mackenzie Presbyterian University. Social Scientist, Master and Doctor in Sociology, from Unesp
