March 14, 2018, Afro-Brazilian leader, activist, and city council member Marielle Franco; has reportedly been murdered by the hands of government officials.
After attending the ‘Young Black Women Who Are Changing Power Structures’ event in Rio de Janeiro, Franco was returning home in her vehicle alongside her driver Anderson Gomes and a press officer. Shortly after, they were gunned down by two gun men who unleashed nine shots into the vehicle. The press officer was the sole survivor and endured minor injuries.
Franco’s death is being investigated as an assassination.
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Franco was elected city council woman of Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She used her platform, to tirelessly fight against the Brazilian society and their injustice, discrimination, and prejudice acts against members of the community.
Military intervention between 2014-2015 had an intensely negative affect upon the state of Rio de Janeiro. This has caused a dramatic rise in the death toll that the city hasn’t seen in quite some time.
Franco had high hopes of putting an end to this and many more short comings within the city. She wanted evolutionary change, and would not be silenced about it. Approximately 6,731 civilians have been killed within the year 2017, 649 deaths have been reported in January 2018 alone, and 184 people have been killed at the hands of police officials.
Hundreds of thousands, have been deeply effected by Franco’s death. She has been deemed as, the change the city needed. Her hard work and dedication were on the path of creating an impactful change that government officials were intimated by.
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