One week after the assassination of local councilwoman and human rights activist Marielle Franco - together with her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes - another council member, Paulo Teixeira, was also shot dead yesterday, while driving his car.

 

Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament regret the general escalation of violence in the city. Sometimes this violence is connected to the drug trade, but very often, it is directed against people engaged in the defence of human rights.

 

That is why the S&D Group requests the Brazilian authorities to investigate these deaths, to do all in its power to stop this escalation of violence, but also to guarantee the security of human rights defenders.

 

S&D MEPs Francisco Assis (chair of the Parliament’s Delegation for Mercosur), Ramón Jáuregui (chair of the Eurolat Parliamentary Assembly), and Carlos Zorrinho (vice-president of the Delegation for relations with Brazil) said:

 

“We strongly condemn the heinous assassination of Marielle Franco and Paulo Teixeira. The escalating violence in Brazil and, in particular, violence against elected politicians, represents a disturbing deterioration of the guarantees of the rule of law in Brazil.

 

“The Brazilian authorities and the Brazilian justice should carry out an immediate, thorough and transparent investigation into these assassinations in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and punish them under the law.”