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image source, AFP
Brazil is shocked by the murder of a militant from the party of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the hands of a sympathizer of the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, a few months before the presidential elections that will confront both leaders.
Marcelo Arruda, a municipal guard and leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), was shot dead on Saturday at his birthday party by federal policeman Jorge José Guaranho, who invaded the event in Foz do Iguaçu, a city on the border with Argentina and Paraguay- to the cry of “Here we are from Bolsonaro!”according to civil police witnesses.
Guaranho fired twice at Arruda, who responded with three shots.
Police had initially revealed that Guaranho had died as a result of the shooting, but later corrected the information and said he was in critical condition and in hospital custody.
Both of them they didn’t know each other until the time of the crime, according to the police investigation.
“Marcelo, in his last heroic act, saved countless lives, as the fascist also threatened and could have killed everyone at the party, including his family,” the PT said.
Arruda celebrated his 50th birthday at a party decorated with a photo of Lula and symbols of the PT.
image source, Archyde.com
Marcelo Arruda was killed while celebrating his birthday in Foz do Iguaçu.
PT leaders attributed the crime to what they called “Bolnarista hate speech.”
“A person, out of intolerance, threatened him and then shot him. He defended himself and prevented a greater tragedy. Two families lost their parents. The children were orphaned, including those of the aggressor,” Lula da Silva wrote on Twitter with the information. initial statement that Guaranho had also died.
“Enough of violence! Enough of destruction! It is time for the reconstruction and transformation of Brazil and of the relations between Brazilians and Brazilians! We cry and bury another comrade who was a victim of political violence, enough!” a note signed by Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the PT, and by Abdael Ambruster, the party’s national coordinator of public security.
Bolsonaro spoke about the case on social media, but did not mourn the death of the municipal guard or offer condolences to Arruda’s family.
“We dispense with any type of support from those who practice violence against opponents. I ask these types of people to, for consistency, change sides and support the left,” he wrote on Twitter.
“That the authorities seriously investigate what happened and take all appropriate measures,” added the president.
Lula and Bolsonaro are the main candidates for the presidential elections to be held in October this year.
The Labor candidate Ciro Gomes, third in voting intentions, also repudiated the fact and said that “political hatred needs to be contained” to avoid “a tragedy of gigantic proportions.”
Meanwhile, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, said that this murder is “the materialization of the political intolerance that permeates today’s Brazil” and shows “what it is like to live in barbarism.”
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