A Rio councilwoman’s killing was a mystery. An arrest gave a peek at corruption keeping it unsolved

By DIANE JEANTET, DAVID BILLER and GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police have arrested the chief of the Rio de Janeiro state civil police for allegedly helping orchestrate the killing of popular councilwoman Marielle Franco in 2018 and taking money to obstruct the very investigation he would oversee. The explosive revelations come in a nearly 500-page Federal Police report. The report offers an unprecedented glimpse into how organized crime has undermined Rio’s institutions and reveals the depth of corruption in a city where militias allegedly pay police to look away. The death of the rising political star who resisted militias’ expansion and fought ardently for the poor has driven home the consequences of allowing organized crime to run roughshod over Rio’s sprawling landscape.