Bolsonaro paramilitary ties in spotlight after photo with murder suspect

[Judi Lynn]

An image of Brazil’s president with a suspect in Marielle Franco’s death has raised questions over his family’s alleged mafia ties

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Wed 13 Mar 2019 13.53 EDT

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is facing growing calls to explain his family’s alleged links to the heavily armed and notoriously violent paramilitary gangs that control large swaths of Rio de Janeiro.

Questions over possible connections between the Bolsonaros and Rio’s so-called “militias” were swirling even before the former army captain took office in January – so much so that revellers at this year’s carnival penned a song satirising the president’s supposed criminal ties.

But those concerns intensified this week when a photograph emerged in which a grinning Jair Bolsonaro appears with his arm around one of the two men arrested on Tuesday for the 2018 assassination of the Rio councillor Marielle Franco.

Police also confirmed that one of Bolsonaro’s sons had dated the daughter of the other murder suspect, Ronnie Lessa, and that Lessa lived in the same beachside compound where Brazil’s president lived until moving to the capital following his election last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/13/jair-bolsonaro-paramilitaries-marielle-franco-suspects



Marielle Franco

[Judi Lynn]

1. Brazilian paper: Picture of Bolsonaro next to suspect to kill Marielle circulates in the internet

(Google translated)


Photo was posted by ex-PM Elcio Queiroz in a social networking page that was released on Tuesday morning (12), and was made last October, during the first round of elections

posted 12/03/2019 12:06 / updated on 03/03/2019 12:34 PM



Elcio de Vieira Queiroz alongside President Jair Bolsonaro
(photo: Reproduction / WhatsApp)

A photo appears on the internet in which President Jair Bolsonaro appears alongside former PM Elcio de Vieira Queiroz, arrested on Tuesday (12) on suspicion of participating in the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSol-RJ).

Queiroz, 46, would have posted the image in which he appears side by side with Bolsonaro on October 4, on the eve of the first round of the presidential election.

Days before, on September 25, the same profile posted a recording of a show by Paulo Ricardo with the caption "Homage of Paulo Ricardo (RPM) to Captain Bolsonaro!"

More:
https://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/nacional/2019/03/12/interna_nacional,1037241/foto-de-bolsonaro-ao-lado-de-suspeito-de-matar-marielle-circula-na-int.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

2. Former Police Officers Arrested In Killing Councilwoman Marielle Franco

Investigators claim that one of them shot the politician and the other drove the car

Mar.13.2019 5:13PM

Lucas Vettorazzo
Ana Luiza Albuquerque
RIO DE JANEIRO

The Rio de Janeiro's police announced on Tuesday (12th) the arrest of former police officer Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Vieira de Queiroz, 46. Both are suspected of taking part in the execution of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, two days short of the crime's one-year anniversary. Both suspects claim they are innocent.

According to investigators, Lessa opened fire on Franco and Gomes, and Queiroz drove the car which intercepted Franco and from where Lessa shot the councilwoman.

. . .

State attorneys said that the execution was carefully planned for three months, and Franco was assassinated because of her human rights activism. The investigators found out that Lessa researched the councilwoman's routine and schedules for weeks before the crime happened. He also researched schedules of other left-wing politicians, like House representative Marcelo Freixo (PSOL), who was close to Franco.

. . .
Alexandre Motta, a friend of Lessa's, was also arrested for keeping an illegal amount of weapons in his house. Police found 117 pieces to assemble M-16 rifles and 500 pieces of ammunition, all in cardboard boxes.

More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2019/03/former-police-officers-arrested-in-killing-councilwoman-marielle-franco.shtml