How right and left parliamentarians reacted to the alleged denunciation in the Marielle case

The appointment of Rio de Janeiro Court of Auditors (TCE-RJ) counselor Domingos Brazão as having ordered the murder of councilor Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, in the alleged denunciation of former police officer Ronnie Lessa, reignited the debate on “who ordered Marielle killed?” between left and right parliamentarians.

Brazão is a former MDB politician who supported Dilma Rousseff’s (PT) campaign for the presidency of the Republic and was arrested in 2017 as part of Operation Lava Jato accused of corruption. Among the hypotheses for the crime against Marielle would be a possible revenge by Brazão against Marcelo Freixo (PT), current president of Embratur, when Freixo was state deputy for Psol. After the murder of the councilor, the councilor’s name emerged as one of the suspects amid the federalization of the Marielle case in 2020 (learn more here).

Left-wing activists and politicians, who have been trying for years to link Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and people around him to Marielle’s death, hoped that the accusation would point to someone close to the former president. Bolsonaro himself spoke out after the release of Brazão’s name, saying that “the outsized and purposeful narrative created by a large part of the press and left-wing militancy ceases.”

The disclosure of Lessa’s alleged accusation occurred this Tuesday (23) unofficially – its content has not yet been approved by the Judiciary and has not been confirmed by the Federal Police.

Federal deputy Jandira Feghali (PCdoB-RJ) praised the accusation, but said she preferred to wait for “concrete information”. “We trust in the seriousness of the work that the Federal Police has been carrying out in the face of [sic] investigations, advancing with compelling facts and evidence in resolving this brutal political crime that shocked Brazil and the world, an attack on Brazilian democracy and violence against an elected black woman who always fought in defense of human rights”, he wrote.

One day before the revelation of Lessa’s accusation, deputy André Janones (Avante-MG), an ally of President Lula (PT), published on social media that “Marielle Franco’s confessed killer” had reached a plea agreement with the PF to hand over “all those who ordered the crime” once and for all. And he added that “a certain family” – he said in reference to the Bolsonaro family – would be “scared to death of what will happen”. After the alleged mastermind of the crime was revealed, Janones avoided comments on the network and only tried to disassociate Brazão from the PT.

Janones’ publications were in response to federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), who refuted the traditional left-wing narrative of trying to link Bolsonaro to Marielle’s death, and questioned online “why did a PT member order Marielle to be killed?”.

“The guy who has a photo with a sticker on his chest of Dilma and the vice president of the PT says that he was in several electoral campaigns together, he cannot be called a PT member. But Bolsonaro could be called the person who ordered Marielle’s death for years. Ahem, sit there”, wrote the deputy from Minas Gerais.

The leader of the opposition in the Chamber, Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ), criticized the “silence of the left” after the revelation of the alleged mastermind behind Marielle’s murder. “When they had no proof of who ordered the crime against Marielle, they blamed Bolsonaro in a scandalous, frivolous and irresponsible way. Now we see very few leftists speaking out about the accusation against Dilma’s supporter in 2010, Domingos Brazão. Everyone is discouraged,” wrote Jordy .

When commenting on the plea bargain, Senator Magno Malta (PL-ES) shared a quote from Brazão in which he says: “No one benefited more from Marielle’s death than Psol”. “Even the alleged mastermind behind Marielle’s murder knows this. And it’s something we see the left doing repeatedly: using someone’s death as a political platform. The ultimate end will always be more power and never a sincere tribute or the desire to elucidate the crime. These people are capable of anything and without any remorse”, wrote Malta.