At a long table under a broken clock, Renata Souza struggles to summon her voice. The hall is jampacked and all eyes are on her.
When Souza was last in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, to help Marielle Franco run for the Rio de Janeiro city council, the clock stood at the same time, yet so much has transpired. Franco, whose unexpected victory and fearless — even incautious — attacks on the corrupt powers running slums like hers, was dead. Not just dead; a 38-year-old black, bisexual mother, Franco was snuffed out in a drive-by assassination in March, triggering outrage across the globe and the stirrings of a political wave.
Rio de Janeiro is a vacuum filled by three competing, but increasingly collaborating, powers that represent tall barriers for new candidates: militias, drug traffickers and evangelical churches. The militias, originally made up of former law enforcement personnel, were supposed to stop the traffickers. But many now collaborate with traffickers who are themselves increasingly converted in prison by evangelical churches and then return to a life of crime.
The women known as the “seeds” of Marielle Franco are hoping to overcome all of that. About 10 from Rio intend to run for state assembly or federal congress. Thais Ferreira, a 29-year-old mother of two, has been drawn to politics since her childhood but never imagined it was a real possibility, she said in an interview.
The women following Franco’s footsteps face not only militias, traffickers and pastors; they lack resources and connections. They plan to exercise caution to avoid confrontations and lean heavily on social media, but they’ll need to reach residents directly.
“Marielle’s murder was a message for militant black women from the favela to stay silent, and I see a lot of courage in those who reject that message,” said Mario Brum, a history professor at Rio’s state university. “It’s going to be a test for our tattered democracy whether these people manage to campaign and get a good amount of votes. It would show there’s still some hope.”