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News > Latin America

Afro-Brazilian Leader, Witness in Marielle Franco's Case, Killed

  • Alexandre Pereira

    Alexandre Pereira | Photo: @LemusteleSUR

Published 9 April 2018
Opinion

Just like Marielle Franco, Pereira was a social leader who worked closely with his community, bringing their demands to parliament.

The body of Carlos Alexandre Pereira Maria was found on Sunday night in a car cribbled with bullets in the road of Curumau, east of Rio de Janeiro, reported local media.

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Brazil: Black Activists Plan Community Security Measures After Marielle's Execution

Pereira, 37, who used to work as a city advisor for Marcello Siciliano, was cited to testify in court last week for the investigation of the assassination of Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes.

He was also a social leader who worked closely with his community, bringing their demands to the parliament.

An investigation has been opened. A witness allegedly said that one of the hitmen shouted: “this dude should have his mouth shut.”

Franco, along with her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were fatally shot in her car on March 14 while returning home from an event in central Rio de Janeiro called Young Black Women Moving Structures.

In 2016, she was elected as a city councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro and used her brief term in office in defense of communities and those who have been historically excluded and discriminated from Brazilian society. 

In February, soldiers began an occupation of Mare, a community which approximately 140,000 residents call home, as they did for over a year between 2014 and 2015, as part of the Brazilian government's military intervention in the state of Rio de Janeiro which began on Feb. 16.

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