‘Water the seeds’ of democracy against political violence in Brazil: Marielle Franco's legacy

‘ … [W]e need to shift a political culture, a culture that is really crosscut by fear and by violence’

Originally published on Global Voices

This article, written by Bibbi Abruzzini and Clarisse Sih, is part of the #MarchWithUs campaign, which features stories from gender justice activists from across the globe. Listen to the podcast episode on the Marielle Franco Institute here.

On the night of March 14, 2018, Brazil was shocked by the breaking news about the execution of a Rio de Janeiro city councilor. The politician was 38-year-old Marielle Franco, and she was killed in her car alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes. Franco’s name would turn into a symbol against political violence and become known worldwide since then.

Franco was first elected to Rio's City Council in 2016 with PSOL (Socialism and Liberty), a leftist party. She was a woman of African descent who grew up in the Maré favela complex, one of the largest in the city; she was a single mother and a woman in a same-sex relationship. A sociologist, she also had a master's degree, obtained studying the installment of police units in favelas, and advocated for human rights, especially for LGBTQ+ and impoverished communities.

In her first run, she received 46.502 votes. After her death, her family created the Marielle Franco Institute, a civil society organization, to keep seeking justice and responses on her killing and who ordered it, but also to carry her legacy with projects linked to her subjects of interest.

With Brazil voting again in city elections and over 60 countries going to the ballots this 2024, there are also concerns about the vulnerability of activists, candidates and even citizens amidst polarized local contexts. Research shows that political violence is worse for some.

Women and other minorities around the world are facing unprecedented levels of targeted political violence. This takes a wide range of forms, including physical attacks and backlash against groups that have historically been marginalized as a reaction to their advancement within patriarchal and colonial power structures.

‘The police shot 111 times’

After Anielle Franco, Marielle’s younger sister, was named minister of racial equality in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2023, Lígia Batista, a human rights lawyer became the executive director of the Marielle Franco Institute. Batista was one of the people who built a campaign for Amnesty International following the developments of the investigations on Franco’s murder, demanding faster response and impartiality by the police authorities and taking the case to national and international human rights forums.

“I started organizing my anger in university, joining as a human rights activist addressing mostly racism and police violence,” says Batista in an interview with Bibbi Abruzzini from the civil society network Forus. ”The first case that touched my heart took place in November 2015, when five Black boys were shot to death by police officers in Rio de Janeiro inside a car. The police shot 111 times.”

“After that day, I started to understand what moves me, why I was so angry, and what kind of contributions I wanted to offer to bring about change when it comes to these inequalities and how violence works against people like us, my family and my neighbors,” Batista says.

In her years working at Amnesty International, Batista navigated through issues such as housing rights, the right to protest, conflict resolution, and denouncing police brutality and violence in politics. Because of that activism, she had the chance to meet Marielle Franco.

Over the past few years, the Instituto Marielle Franco has been consolidating its work around three main areas, Batista explains. The first focuses on addressing gender and race-based violence in politics. The second is to fight and overcome barriers to the political participation of Black women, LGBTQ+ people and people from favelas and peripheries in politics. The third is to explore creative ways to protect Marielle Franco's memory.

For instance, for the 2024 municipal elections in Brazil, they developed the Marielle Franco Agenda, a set of anti-racist, feminist, LGBTQI+, peripheral, and popular political practices and commitments inspired by Franco's legacy. In developing this year's edition, they consulted over 200 collectives, social movements, and organizations, doubling the number of participants they had in 2022.

The agenda is designed to be implemented in city councils and municipal governments by 2024 candidates.

Tackling gender and race-based violence in politics

Batista says, “To be able to move the needle when it comes to the fight for transformation in Brazil's political system, we need to shift a political culture, a culture that is really crosscut by fear and by violence. To address political violence, political parties and governments need to be held accountable. They need to be the ones offering effective tools to be able to prevent and tackle gender and race-based violence in politics”.

For instance, the research “Mapping Political Violence Against Black Women” conducted by the Instituto Marielle Franco in partnership with Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos, looked at gender-based political violence. According to the report, eight out of 10 Black women in the 2020 elections in Brazil experienced virtual violence; six out of 10 experienced moral and psychological violence, and five out of 10 suffered from institutional violence.

They have mapped eight types of political violence suffered by over 140 Black women candidates in the country, and their work has consistently shown that whether Black women are elected or not, they remain unprotected against these forms of violence. Through the “Não Seremos Interrompidas” (“We will not be Interrupted”) campaign — a reference to Marielle's last speech at Rio's City Council — they’ve been advocating for local authorities to act against political violence that has kept Black women and LGBTQ+ people from accessing and safely occupying political power.

“This year, we are working on creating a network of political strategists, people who are going to come together to support Black women candidates and LGBTQ+ people during elections. So far, we have been exploring this work mostly through arts and culture,” Batista adds.

Two years ago, a law was passed in Brazil to combat political violence. “‘Justice for Marielle’ goes beyond finding answers and holding the perpetrators of the crime accountable. We need to ensure that no one else gets killed.”

Therefore, the Institute has launched a survey that takes “an X-ray” of the two years of the law and the mechanisms for protecting and preventing political violence. They are calling for expanded legislation, enhanced protection mechanisms — including a specific protocol for victims of political violence — a guarantee of adequate financial support for representatives dealing with attacks and involving political parties, electoral bodies and more in prevention and awareness programs.

The PANE platform, another project by the institute, consolidates actions and tools aimed at reshaping Brazil’s political system. With a nod to the 524 years since the Portuguese colonizers’ arrival, the platform walks one through the deep-rooted inequalities and violence faced by historically marginalized communities over centuries. The cracks in the current structures are visible, and PANE promotes the inclusion of Black women in decision-making spaces, pressuring parties to support these candidacies and advocating for a commitment to anti-racist policies among candidates in elections.

In collaboration with organizations like Educafro, the Movimento Mulheres Negras Decidem (Black Women Decide), and the Coalizão Negra por Direitos (Black Coalition for Rights), the Instituto Marielle Franco has already achieved significant milestones.

They successfully pressured the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for proportional funding and airtime for Black candidates in the 2022 elections. However, they aim for more permanent changes and are urging parties to implement these recommendations immediately.

Global trends

Globally, women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities continue to face significant underrepresentation in political decision-making and political parties. This issue is rooted in complex societal dynamics and intersecting forms of violence. At the current rate, gender diversity in the highest positions of “political power” will not be reached for another 130 years.

The role of international solidarity in achieving change in political systems cannot be neglected, Batista says: “I think that international solidarity is key to us. We are stronger where and when we are together beyond any borders. This message of collectiveness is always really important to put an extra layer of pressure to make decisions, to change the situation and to create a different political environment.”

This past March 14 marked six years, 71 months since Marielle Franco was murdered. The family writes that these were “the hardest six years of our lives.” But every year, the Instituto Marielle Franco organized a “justice festival” with over 20,000 people to continue fighting for justice, defending Marielle Franco's memory, multiplying her legacy and “watering her seeds” of democracy against political violence.

After six years, Marielle Franco's killers were finally convicted this November. Addressing the press after the sentencing, Anielle Franco, Franco’s sister, said that this is the beginning of a path to justice: “We need to end the normalization of violence against Black people, children who are victims of stray bullets and murdered public figures. We will hold our heads high for Marielle, Anderson, and the right to a dignified life.”

Written by Forus