Honoring the life and legacy of Afro-Brazilian activist Marielle Franco

(Text from @WomenInTimes IG)

On the night of March 14, 2018, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Councilwoman Marielle Franco said goodbye to the young Black women she had been at a meeting with and got into her car to go home. The car was followed by another car and hit by 13 shots. Marielle and the driver Anderson Gomes died at the scene. A year later, two former police officers were arrested as alleged perpetrators of the murders, and they are still awaiting trial. There are indications that militia groups and organized crime were involved in the murders and the investigations have stalled. Four years after the femicide that brought political gender violence to the fore in Brazil, mirroring a common reality throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, our questions remain unanswered: Who ordered the assassination of Marielle Franco? And why? 

Although still unidentified, those who tried to silence Marielle did not succeed. Marielle, a strong, Black, LGBT woman from the Maré favela, a mother, a sociologist, and human rights defender, lives on through the seeds she planted. There are countless Black LGBTQIAP+ women from the favelas who are inspired by her struggle for reproductive justice, against state violence, for quality public health and education for the favelas, and against the genocide of Black youth. Those taking Marielle’s legacy forward are committed to building a country based on “ancestral civilizational values”, human rights, and the defense of democracy, as stated in the report “Gender and racial political violence in Brazil 2021”, by the Marielle Franco Institute. Many of them were elected to office in 2018 and in 2020. So many more will run in the 2022 Brazilian elections. ALL of them are unbearably targeted by attacks for bringing historically underrepresented groups to power and challenging structural inequalities. Many face death threats on a daily basis. 

These human rights defenders are the bearers of hope for Brazil and for our whole region, where political violence grows as more Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQIAP+ women and women with disabilities work to dismantle the racist patriarchy. Today and every day we stand in global solidarity to nurture the seeds Marielle Franco planted. We demand that those who took her from our world are held accountable. We support those who honor her legacy. Marielle is immortal in the face of injustice. Marielle is a forest that grows around us, stronger every day.

*Texto disponible en español y portugués en la cuenta de Instagram de @WomenInTimes