The car in which the Special Coordinator for Sexual Diversity of Rio de Janeiro City Hall, Nélio Georgini da Silva, was traveling, was the target of a shooting attack, on the afternoon of last Sunday, 01st, in the north zone of the city, at around 14:30 p.m., between the neighborhoods of Benfica and Rocha.
In a statement, the coordinator stated that the vehicle was chased by criminals after leaving a restaurant where he was with his parents and husband.
“We left the restaurant, left my parents at home. Suddenly a motorbike came. The motorcycle followed us, on my side [in the passenger seat], with a gun pointed, and I was giving instructions because my husband doesn't know the area. Then we turned onto a street and heard shots. None of them hit the car, I don't know what they hit. The noise of the motorcycle, the gun in hand and the sound of the car were recorded in my memory,” he said.
Affiliated to the same party as Mayor Marcelo Crivella, PRB, Georgini took office in January 2017. An admitted homosexual, he is an evangelical and has been married for eight years to bank employee Ronie Adams.
In his statement, the coordinator said that he never suffered threats because of his role in LGBT activism, and believes that the attack was unrelated to his work. “Maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, they are killing everyone in Rio.”
On social media, Nélio once again spoke out about what happened and took the opportunity to criticize federal intervention in the state. “We would be different to the statistics of a robbed, finished city, which lives off the makeup of an intervention that so far not a single fly has caught! There is no military in the north!,” he wrote.
MARIELLE FRANCO
Although the coordinator disbelieves that the attack he suffered could have anything to do with his activism and work on a subject that is intrinsically linked to the defense of human rights, the attack leads to the murder of Rio councilor Marielle Franco (PSOL), on March 14 .
Fifth most voted councilor in the city, Marielle was killed with gunshots to the head, after an attack on the car she was in. At the time, driver Anderson Gomes also died as a result of the crime.
The councilor was known for her work in defense of human rights and criticism of the violent actions of some military police officers in the favelas of the capital of Rio de Janeiro. A few days before she was murdered, Marielle had been elected rapporteur for the Commission that will investigate the army's actions in Rio's communities.
