A Brazilian councilwoman assassinated in Rio in March was killed by a militia looking to protect its interests controlling land in unregulated slums, or favelas, in a part of the city, the head of Rio de Janeiro state's public security secretariat said Friday.
Marielle Franco, a high-profile lawmaker and black rights activist who was critical of police violence, was gunned down with her driver on March 14 in what looked to be a professional hit. She was 38.
Her death triggered demonstrations and outrage across Brazil.
Some suspects have been arrested but there has been no major progress in the murder investigation, triggering a federal probe to see if local police were trying to thwart the process.
General Richard Nunes, head of the state security authority, told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that Franco was active "in a certain area of Rio controlled by militia, where they have economic interests of all sorts." The militias are composed of members and ex-members of Rio's security forces, effectively becoming well-armed gangs displacing street gangs they were trained to fight.
Nunes said: "What led to the councilwoman's murder and her driver's, was the perception that she was putting those interests of these criminal groups at risk." Franco's work to make people aware "about land ownership caused instability and that's what we ended up seeing", he said.
The comments came a day after a confidential Rio police report was leaked saying a plot had been uncovered to assassinate a state lawmaker, Marcelo Freixo, who was Franco's political mentor and also a critic of the para-police militias.
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