The murder of councilwoman Mariel Franco, who was gunned down along with her driver Anderson Gomez on a street in Rio de Janeiro on March 14, 2018, was “meticulously planned” by the Brazilian city's then police chief Rivaldo Barbosa, who was arrested by the federal. Police (PF) this Sunday. The 479-page report prepared by the PF, which served as the basis for the order by Federal Supreme Court (STF) Judge Alexandre de Moraes, says that apart from Rivaldo, the arrests of federal deputy Squinho Brazao were also carried out this Sunday. And his brother, Domingos Brazao, a consultant to the Court of Auditors, was accused of being the mastermind.
“He was responsible for having control over the final control of the incident, especially by imposing conditions and demands on the problems inherent in the execution”, reads an excerpt from the report. The arrest warrants against Rivaldo, Chiquinho and Domingos were made public by Alexandre de Moraes after the arrests and cited several times by Ricardo Lewandowski, Minister of Justice and Public Security, in a press conference in Brasilia this Sunday afternoon.
What PF says is Inspector (Deputy) Rivaldo Barbosa of the Civil Police (Judicial), who is known to be tough in the fight against crime, but the report says the agency has established a major criminal organization. Within the police, he agreed to participate in the plot that led to the death of the then young left-wing councilor only if he had full control over every stage of the execution and everyone involved obeyed the plan drawn up by him. Rivaldo Barbosa was the head of the Rio de Janeiro Homicide Unit when he was approached by Cquinho and Domingos, alleged masterminds associated with a militia that dominated a large area in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro. , in the situation that the federal police is now investigating, the council appointed the full police chief of the state of Rio de Janeiro the day before the murders of the woman and her driver.
It was with this enormous power, in control of the entire police structure of the state, that Rivaldo, accusing the federal police, was able to block the progress of the investigations into the two gruesome deaths, creating all kinds of obstacles and diverting their attention. According to the PF report republished on the arrest warrants signed by the person in charge, Alexandre de Moraes, he got six years from the full sentence. It is in this sense that Rivaldo and some of his deputies at the head of the Rio de Janeiro police were removed from their posts this Sunday also by order of Alexandre de Moraes, who at the time led an investigation into the misrepresentation of an opposition councilor as chief. And a paramilitary member was later arrested as an executioner for another crime that lasted years but was found to be false.
“Such a requirement (to have control over all the actions that led to the murders of Mariel and Anderson) was based on the need to exclude other agencies, especially the federal agencies, from pursuing the crime in question. Variations of the investigation were manipulated by Rivaldo”, the result of a year-long investigation paralleled by the Rio de Janeiro police. A police report has been included and it has now resulted in nothing for obvious reasons.
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