In Brazil, Marielle Franco's memory inspires the Black, feminist, LGBTQ+ cause against the extreme r
In Brazil, Marielle Franco’s memory inspires the Black, feminist, LGBTQ+ cause against the extreme right
Published: Nov. 29, 2022, 4:41 p.m.
By Palabra
Editor’s note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
By Témoris Grecko
Francia Márquez invited Anielle Franco to join her on stage at Auditorio Mayor in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. It was March 5, 2022, and Márquez was still a promising presidential candidate, but not yet victorious. However, her followers, like Anielle, felt she was already Colombia’s first female and Black president. Anielle had come all the way from Rio de Janeiro, in neighboring Brazil, to witness her campaign’s closing rally ahead of the primary election that would determine the presidential candidate from Colombia’s leftist coalition, Pacto Histórico. Weeks later, Márquez instead became front-runner, Gustavo Petro’s, running mate. And on June 19, she was elected vice president.
Francia waved a yellow scarf that read “Justiça por Marielle” in Portuguese and displayed the face of a Black woman in high-contrast. The Afro-Colombian politician was one of those demanding justice for Anielle’s sister, Marielle Franco, who had been murdered in Rio four years earlier, on March 14, 2018. Anielle saw similarities between the two women: like Márquez, Marielle Franco was a Black, single mother who had dared to venture into White, male-dominated politics, under a far-right government with misogynistic, racist, violent tendencies, openly inspired by Donald Trump’s tactics.
. . .
Stigmas for the struggle
“I am because we are” (eu sou porque nós somos): This was Marielle’s leitmotif and it appears on her memorial wall, located a few feet away on Joaquim Palhares Avenue in downtown Rio, where the city council member was killed. The day she was murdered, she was on her way home after meeting with local women. At about 11 p.m., the assassins pulled up next to Marielle’s car and fired thirteen shots. She took a bullet to the neck and three to the head. Her driver, Anderson Gomes, was shot three times. An aid sitting with Marielle in the back seat was wounded by shrapnel.
. . .
Marielle’s most noteworthy line of work was denouncing the violence of milícias, right-wing paramilitary groups formed by current or former police officers, who claim they are fighting drug-trafficking gangs only to take over their business. They impose their bloody rule over the favelados with racketeering, kidnappings, torture, and killings. Nevertheless, politicians, police officers, some press, prosecutors, and even judges pretend to believe the milicias’ goals are fair to justify leniency and blatant complicity.
More:
https://www.cleveland.com/palabra/2022/11/in-brazil-marielle-francos-memory-inspires-the-black-feminist-lgbtq-cause-against-the-extreme-right.html
