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Middle East travel warnings expanded as tensions between US and Iran increase

More countries have told citizens to leave Iran and the surrounding region as airlines scale back flights amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran. As a day of critical talks over Iran’s nuclear programme was set to begin, and as a vast US military buildup continued in the Middle East, the Trump administration warned of drastic consequences if Iranian negotiators failed to make significant concessions. Australia told dependants of diplomats in Israel and Lebanon to leave the two countries, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The Australian government has also offered voluntary departures to dependants of diplomats in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan amid what the foreign ministry described as a “deteriorating security situation in the region”. The US itself pulled non-essential officials and eligible family members from its embassy in Lebanon earlier this week, citing a review of the “security environment”. The US president and his officials maintain that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear weapons programme, and must stop. JD Vance, the vice-president, told reporters on Wednesday: “The principle is very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Of the negotiations, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said: “I would say that the Iranian insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles is a big, big problem.” Tehran has repeatedly pushed back against Donald Trump’s bellicose rhetoric, accusing him of “big lies” and expressing hope that negotiations may pave the way for an agreement. For weeks, heightened fears of a military conflict between the US and Iran have prompted airlines to suspend flights to and over countries in the region. KLM said announced that it would temporarily suspend flights between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv as of 1 March. The Dutch arm of the airline group Air France KLM did not explicitly cite the US-Iranian tensions on Wednesday, but said in a statement it was not “commercially or operationally feasible” to operate flights to Tel Aviv. Australia is the latest government to start withdrawing dependants of diplomatic personnel and non-essential staff from some locations in the Middle East, or advising citizens to defer travel to Iran, amid rising tensions. Cyprus, Germany, India, Poland, Serbia and Sweden have told nationals in Iran to leave. Singapore advised citizens to continue to defer all travel to the country. Brazil recommended last week that its citizens leave Iran, after a similar alert to its citizens in Lebanon in January. The government last year recommended that Brazilians not travel to the two countries. Reuters contributed to this report

Cuba says border guards killed four people on US-registered speedboat

Cuba’s government claims it thwarted an attempt by gunmen to infiltrate from the US, after its coastguard fired on a Florida-registered speedboat in an exchange of fire near its shores, killing four people and wounding six. The interior ministry claimed people arrested after the firefight on Wednesday said they “intended to carry out an infiltration for the purposes of terrorism”. The ministry’s statement said assault rifles, handguns, molotov cocktails and other military-style gear were found on the vessel and the 10 attackers were all Cubans living in the US. The alleged clash happened during heightened tensions between the US and Cuba during an oil embargo that has led to an energy and humanitarian crisis on the island. One border guard was injured in an exchange of gunfire, according to the ministry. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told reporters it was not a US operation and that no US government personnel were involved. Cuban authorities made the US aware of the incident, but the US embassy in Havana would attempt to independently verify what happened, he said. “We’re not going to base our conclusions on what they’ve [Cuba] told us, and I’m very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here,” Rubio told reporters while on a trip to the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis. “As we gather more information, then we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly,” he said. “Suffice to say it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that.” Florida’s attorney general said he had ordered an investigation into the incident. “The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” said James Uthmeier. The confrontation happened in an area where gentle farmland gives way to the Florida Straits in bleached beaches under swaying palms. The scattered keys offshore are highly militarised as it is a common spot for Cubans seeking to escape to the US to launch their rafts, and also for people smugglers to land in fast boats. There were several incidents in 2022, at the height of Cuba’s migration crisis. In June of that year, off Bahía Honda to Havana’s west, Cuban officials said they returned fire against a trafficking boat, killing one. That October, survivors said their boat was rammed by the coast guard nearby. Seven migrants died, including a two-year-old girl, Elizabeth Meizoso. It is almost exactly 30 years to the day since the Cuban air force killed four people when it shot down two small planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group who were dropping leaflets on Havana. They claimed they were helping people flee the island. That event, in which Carlos Alejandre, 45, Armando Costa, 29, Mario De la Peña, 24, and Pablo Morales, 29, died, ended a thaw between the US and Cuba. The US soon increased its sanctions on the island through the Helms Burton Act that allows US companies that had property confiscated during the 1959 revolution to sue foreign companies using those properties. It is one of the stickiest issues between the countries now, and two such cases are now being heard by the US supreme court. There are also moves in the US to bring charges against the former Cuban president Raúl Castro for the Brothers to the Rescue killings, in the hope of creating a similar pretext for intervention used for the abduction of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. The Trump administration has moderately eased an embargo on the delivery of oil from Venezuela to Cuba due to the growing energy and humanitarian crisis on the island that has been exacerbated by a US blockade. The US Treasury Department on Wednesday said it would now allow American and some international companies to resell Venezuelan-origin oil and petroleum products in Cuba, opening a potential lifeline between Cuban households and private businesses that have been devastated by the cutoff of fuel imports from Venezuela. The unusual guidance was made in “solidarity with the Cuban people” and was targeted at efforts to “improve living conditions and support independent economic activity”, the Treasury Department said. Tensions have soared between Washington and Havana since the US launched an operation in January to capture Maduro, removing one of Cuba’s chief allies in the region. Administration officials led by Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a hawkish opponent of the communist Cuban government, have called for additional US pressure on Havana at a time when the US is flexing its muscle throughout Latin America. The US cut a major lifeline to Cuba after its operation to capture Maduro, taking control of the export of Caracas’s substantial oil production. Before the raid against Maduro, Venezuela was a key supplier of oil to Cuba. The US has also threatened to slap tariffs on other critical suppliers such as Mexico to halt deliveries of oil and fuel to Cuba. The directives from the US Treasury and Commerce departments said that oil and petroleum products could be sold to businesses and private households but not to any government institutions, in effect relying on the Cuban government to respect the arrangement. “This favourable licensing policy is directed towards transactions that support the Cuban people, including the Cuban private sector (eg, exports for commercial and humanitarian use in Cuba),” the guidance read, but banned transactions with “the Cuban military, intelligence services, or other government institutions”. At present the Cuban government is believed to have issued 10 licences to private businesses to bring in fuel in so-called ISO tanks, which fit the standard container spaces on cargo ships. But this will not ease the crisis by much. To function well, Cuba is estimated to need 100,000 barrels a day. The embargo has led to an acute energy crisis on the island. Much of the country is affected by blackouts which can last from 12 to 20 hours a day. Regional leaders have said that the blockade and resulting economic crisis could affect migration, security and economic stability elsewhere in the Caribbean. Mexico’s foreign ministry announced on Wednesday that it had sent a second shipment of humanitarian aid on Tuesday, including beans and powdered milk. Canada for the first time also announced it provide would US $6.7m in food aid through the UN, rather than the Cuban government. “This is Canadian foreign policy,” said the Canadian foreign affairs minister, Anita Anand. “We are focused on the humanitarian situation.” Rubio was reassuring leaders at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) on St Kitts and Nevis. The Jamaican prime minister and the outgoing Caricom chair, Andrew Holness, has said he supports “constructive dialogue between Cuba and the US aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability”. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv to accelerate placement of anti-drone nets across frontline

Ukraine will speed up the placement of anti-drone nets over roads in frontline areas, aiming to cover 4,000km of roads by the end of this year, the defence minister has said. A growing number of nets have been installed over the past year but more were needed, Mykhailo Fedorov said, adding that an additional 1.6bn hryvnias ($37m) had been allocated from the budget to bolster protection measures and counter Russian drones. Moscow has been targeting military supply routes and rear bases deeper and deeper into Ukraine with the remotely piloted aircraft and drones have also struck hospitals, infrastructure and civilian traffic. Nets can snag propellers and prevent drones from reaching their targets. “In just one month, we increased the speed [of coverage] from 5km per day in January to 12km in February,” Fedorov said on Telegram on Wednesday. “This significantly improved the safety of military movements and ensured stable functioning of frontline communities. In March, we plan to close 20km of roads per day.” A Ukrainian delegation will meet Donald Trump’s envoys on Thursday in the run-up to another round of trilateral talks with Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, is due to hold talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Geneva, the Ukrainian president told reporters on Wednesday. Thursday’s meeting will include addressing details of a possible postwar recovery plan for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, adding that he had also tasked Umerov with discussing a possible prisoner exchange. Ukraine expected the US-brokered talks with Russia to take place next week, Zelenskyy said. Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s economic affairs envoy Kirill Dmitriev planned to travel to Geneva on Thursday to meet US negotiators for talks, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. A US push for peace has already brought Russia and Ukraine to the table in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year but the talks produced no breakthrough as the war enters its fifth year. Repairs to the Druzhba pipeline that carries Russian oil to eastern Europe cannot be completed quickly despite requests from the EU and protests by Hungary, Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. “Firstly, it’s not that fast,” he told reporters, adding that Russian strikes had destroyed the pipeline linking the Black Sea port of Odesa with Druzhba. “This is not their first strike, and they continue to hit the energy sector.” Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since 27 January, when Kyiv says a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine, and Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday to mark the war’s fourth anniversary that the EU was asking Ukraine to speed up repairs. Zelenskyy said: “They advise us to repair it, but they know that there have already been attacks on Druzhba. Our people were injured so that it would work.” The first Ukrainian drone production plant has started its operations in Britain, Ukraine’s ambassador said on Wednesday. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, a former commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the producer, Ukrspecsystems, founded in 2014, had proved the efficiency of its drones on the frontline. “Ukraine is fighting a war amid constant missile strikes, infrastructure destruction and threats to production facilities,” he said on Telegram. “Therefore, the launch of production in the UK has a deep strategic logic.” Switzerland’s government announced that the purchase and import of Russian liquefied natural gas would be completely banned from 25 April, as the country aligns itself with the latest round of EU sanctions. It added that in the case of pre-existing long-term supply contracts, a transition period would apply until the end of the year.

Jacinda Ardern living and working in Australia after move from US

The former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is living in Australia with her family, a spokesperson has confirmed. “The family has been travelling for a few years now,” her office told the Guardian. “For the moment they’re basing themselves out of Australia – they have work there, and it brings the added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand.” Speculation that Ardern was considering a move to Australia emerged on Thursday, after reports in Australian media that she and her husband, Clarke Gayford, and their seven-year-old daughter, Neve, attended open home viewings in Sydney’s northern beaches. The high-profile family’s move to Australia could hit a nerve within New Zealand, as the country grapples with record numbers of citizens leaving the country because of a weak economy, high living costs and high unemployment. More than 60% of those moved to Australia, where average weekly incomes are higher and New Zealand citizens have work and residency rights. The spokesperson did not elaborate on when the family arrived in Australia nor what kind of work they were doing, but noted it was not unusual for former leaders to spend time overseas after leaving office. In 2017, Ardern became the world’s youngest-serving female leader, aged 37, and went on to make history as the second woman to give birth while holding elected office. Over the next six years, her leadership was defined by a series of national and international crises including the Christchurch attack and Covid pandemic. At a time when major western powers were lurching to the right, Ardern’s brand of politics made her a global icon of the left. Towards the end of her time in office, Ardern’s legacy at home became more complicated, and she faced criticism over her government’s failure to make headway on its promises to fix the housing crisis and meaningfully reduce emissions. As the pandemic wore on, a small but vocal fringe of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate groups emerged, leading to a violent protest on parliament’s lawns and threatening rhetoric directed at Ardern. In January 2023 she announced she was stepping down as prime minister because she no longer had “enough in the tank”. Since leaving office, Ardern has taken up dual fellowship roles at Harvard University, continued her work on the Christchurch Call – a project she established to combat online extremism, after the Christchurch mosque shootings – and joined the board of trustees of Prince William’s Earthshot prize. In 2025 she released a memoir, shortly after a documentary traversing her leadership and personal life premiered at Sundance.

Iran enters critical nuclear talks with US insisting deal is within reach

Iran enters critical talks on its nuclear programme with the US on Thursday, insisting a deal is in reach as long as Washington sticks by its willingness to concede Iran’s symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and not to impose controls on Iran’s ballistic missile programme. The three preconditions for success are seen as critical by Iranian diplomats, but it remains unclear whether Trump accepts these parameters. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday that it would be a “big problem” if Iran did not negotiate over missiles. The US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is heading to Geneva for the talks along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, had already accepted these principles in the two previous rounds of indirect talks, Iranian officials claim. But it remains possible that Trump could overturn these terms, a step that will inevitably lead to a conflict between the two nations that could rapidly consume the whole of the Middle East. It is understood that Witkoff has asked only that Iran agree to enrichment at below 5% purity, roughly the level it accepted in the 2015 nuclear deal and well below weapons grade. A source in contact with Iran’s negotiation team said members were surprised at the lax terms of the proposal submitted last week by Kushner and Witkoff as a first step. The key request, this source said, was that Iran agree to limit enrichment to 5% and convert the programme to civilian use. But, in turn, the source said there were no offers of immediate sanctions relief or diplomatic ties: Iran would be left in economic handcuffs. Still, the next step, the source said, would be negotiations to gradually relieve sanctions and opening dialogue. Before leaving for Geneva, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the aim was to achieve “a fair and just agreement in the shortest possible time”. “Our fundamental positions and beliefs are completely clear. Iran will never, under any circumstances, seek to develop nuclear weapons; at the same time we Iranians will never forgo our right to benefit from peaceful nuclear technology,” he added. “Achieving an agreement is within reach but only if diplomacy is prioritised.” In his State of the Union speech, delivered early in the morning Tehran time, Trump veered sharply away from the negotiating path adopted by Witkoff when he warned about Iran’s ballistic missiles reaching Europe, accused Iran of being the number one sponsor of terrorism and again claimed Iran had not promised to forgo nuclear weapons. He also claimed 32,000 demonstrators had been killed by the Iranian authorities in recent protests. The US president added that Iran had failed to heed a warning to make “no future attempts” to rebuild its nuclear weapons programmes after last June’s American strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities. “We wiped it out and they want to start all over again,” Trump said. He added Iran was “at this moment, again, pursuing their sinister ambitions”. Only two hours before the speech, Araghchi had written on social media that Iran would under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei sought to compare Trump to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister. He accused Trump and his administration of conducting a “disinformation + misinformation campaign” against Iran. “Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baqaei wrote on X. After a briefing with Rubio, Jim Himes, a senior Democrat on the US House intelligence committee, said: “We have not heard a single compelling reason why now is a time to start another war in the Middle East.” For Iran, the presence of Raphael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, at the Geneva talks along with mediators from Oman is regarded as significant, since Grossi has the legal authority to state if he thinks any access offered by Iran to verify its commitments on enrichment matches the inspectorate’s needs. Araghchi’s team are also willing to find ways for Trump to argue the deal he has secured is better than the one negotiated by Barack Obama in 2015. Tehran recognises that this is a prerequisite for Trump in terms of US domestic politics. Before heading to Geneva, Grossi said the US had made it clear it was not going to argue for weeks or months. “A very dangerous situation is developing against the backdrop of these negotiations,” he said in reference to the vast and now complete US military buildup in the region. Araghchi said in an interview with CBS this week that “enrichment is our right … this technology is dear to us”. The US has not been clear if its demand for zero enrichment within Iran would apply to enrichment for medical purposes. Speaking to the Iranian newspaper Entekhab, Hamzeh Safavi, a professor of political science at Tehran University, said: “It is unlikely Iran would accept zero enrichment but it is likely to accept symbolic enrichment. What is important for Iran is the right to enrich and that the issue of enrichment does not become a tool for hostage-taking.” An Iranian agreement on a suspension of enrichment is not unprecedented. In 2003 the then secretary of the supreme national security council, Hassan Rouhani, agreed with France, Germany and the UK to suspend all uranium enrichment and processing activities and to allow snap inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog. The Iranian negotiating team who are being asked to present specific proposals at the Geneva talks will seek irreversible sanctions relief such as the release of frozen Iranian assets held abroad. Across Iran, protests have continued at universities for the fifth day, nearly two months after demonstrations against the regime began..

Spanish officer who led 1981 coup dies on day documents declassified

The Spanish officer who led his armed followers into the Spanish congress in a failed military coup in 1981 has died on the same day that the socialist-led government declassified documents relating to the murky attempt to overthrow the country’s post-Franco democracy. Antonio Tejero, who died aged 93, was part of a network of rightwing police and military officers whose efforts to seize power were thwarted after King Juan Carlos refused to support the coup and ordered the generals to obey the democratic constitutional order. Photographs of Tejero wearing the tricorn patent leather hat of the Guardia Civil and brandishing a pistol at MPs on 23 February 1981 are among the most indelible images of Spain’s young democracy. Tejero, who had been involved in another attempted putsch in 1978, was sentenced to 30 years in jail for his role in the events of 1981, but was released after serving half that time. Tejero’s family announced his death in a statement on Wednesday, just hours after the government had uploaded 153 documents relating to the coup on its website. The statement said Tejero had devoted his life “to God, Spain and his family”. His lawyer, Luís Felipe Utrera Molina, also paid tribute to him in a message posted on X. “Lieutenant Colonel Don Antonio Tejero Molina has died,” he wrote. “A man of honour, of unshakeable faith and with a great love for Spain. May God grant him the peace that men have denied him.” The former officer remained emphatically unrepentant about his part in the failed putsch. “It cost me my career and my freedom, but despite that I don’t regret having tried,” he told an interviewer five years ago. Tejero was also one of the people who turned out to protest against the government’s decision to exhume Franco’s remains from the mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen and transfer them to a suburban cemetery on the outskirts of Madrid in 2019. At the request of the Franco family, one of Tejero’s sons, the priest Ramón Tejero, said mass at the reburial. The Spanish government said it had decided to declassify and publish dozens of documents about the coup so people could find out more about what happened in 1981. “Truth, memory and democracy,” the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday morning. “Because remembering the past is the best way to move forward with progress, harmony and freedom.” Among the declassified files was a report from the ministry of defence revealing that members of the intelligence service were involved in, or had knowledge of, the coup plot. The document said there were “six people who either knew the facts before 23 February, or who drew up operational support and then tried to cover their involvement using an operation that sought to justify their movements that day”. In another document, one of the plotters lamented that the coup had failed because they had left Juan Carlos free and had “treated him as if he were a gentleman” when he was, in fact, “an objective to be removed”. Juan Carlos was lauded at home and abroad for using a TV address on the night of the coup to face down its leaders and defend Spain’s newly restored democracy. But there have long been questions about the precise aims of the coup – and about its backers and instigators. According to an interior ministry file released on Wednesday, an investigation had established that some of the plotters had subsequently attempted to “lessen their criminal responsibility” by trying to implicate the king himself in the plot. “Defence lawyers for those who really were involved – as well as political groups and political circles sympathetic to their cause – have pushed the alleged involvement of his majesty the king as the main reason for the coup attempt,” the report said. “In order to do so, they have twisted true facts, maliciously interpreted others, and come up with things that have existed only in the minds of those who thought them up.”

Berlin film festival organisers to hold crisis talks amid Gaza rows

The organisation that manages the Berlin film festival is to meet for talks amid reports that its American director faces dismissal after a series of rows over Gaza. In a statement on Wednesday, the office of Germany’s federal government commissioner for culture and media said the emergency meeting on Thursday had been called to debate the “future direction of the Berlinale”. The newspaper Bild reported that the meeting could result in the firing of Tricia Tuttle, the US director of the festival since 2024, after controversy over pro-Palestinian speeches at the closing gala, one of which criticised Germany as “partners in the genocide”. KBB, the state-owned company that runs the festival, dismissed the report, telling AFP: “We believe this is fake news.” The Berlinale traditionally sees itself as a more overtly political film festival than its commercial rivals Cannes and Venice, and tries to channel geopolitical conflicts around the globe. But the war in Gaza has proven a major friction point at the festival and across Germany’s culture sector as a whole, as a diverse scene of international artists has rubbed up against a strong pro-Israel consensus among the political authorities that steer its finances. At Saturday’s awards ceremony in the German capital, the Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah al-Khatib was given the Perspectives first film prize for his drama Chronicles From the Siege, a series of interlocking vignettes set in an unnamed Palestinian city. In his acceptance speech, al-Khatib said: “My final word to the German government: you are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this truth, but you choose to not care.” He said Palestinians “will remember everyone who stood with us, and we will remember everyone who stood against us, against our right to live with dignity, or who choose silence or choose to be silent.” In a separate speech, the Lebanese director Marie-Rose Osta criticised Israel while accepting the Golden Bear prize for best short film for Someday a Child. “In reality, children in Gaza, in all of Palestine and in my Lebanon do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs,” she said, referring to a plot line of her film. “No child should need superpowers to survive a genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law.” Germany’s environment minister, Carsten Schneider, of the Social Democratic party, reportedly walked out during al-Khatib’s speech, later saying in a statement that he considered the film-maker’s accusations “not acceptable”. Al-Khatib’s remarks also drew condemnation from Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. Alexander Hoffmann, the parliamentary group leader of the Christian Social Union, partners in Germany’s coalition government, accused al-Khatib of “antisemitic slurs and threats against Germany”. According to sources cited by Bild, Wolfram Weimer, the culture commissioner, decided to relieve Tuttle of her duties after seeing not only the speeches but also a picture taken a week earlier. The photograph showed Tuttle with the Chronicles From the Siege crew, several of whom were wearing keffiyeh scarves and one of whom was displaying a Palestinian flag. Tuttle, who helmed the BFI London film festival from 2018 to 2022, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Weimer’s office on Wednesday confirmed that an extraordinary meeting of the KBB supervisory board would be held on Thursday at the culture commissioner’s initiative. “The meeting will include a discussion on the future direction of the Berlinale,” the statement said. “We will not comment on any further speculation.” At the start of Berlinale, the festival organisers had drawn criticism from activists for not positioning itself unambiguously on the war in Gaza. At the opening press conference, the veteran director and jury president, Wim Wenders, rejected the notion that artists and cultural institutions must actively take political stances. “We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” Wenders said. “But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.” The remarks prompted the Indian author Arundhati Roy to cancel her appearance and were condemned in an open letter signed by more than 80 active or former Berlinale participants, but were vigorously defended by Tuttle. “Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose,” Tuttle said at the time. “Artists should not be expected to comment on all broader debates about a festival’s previous or current practices over which they have no control. Nor should they be expected to speak on every political issue raised to them unless they want to.”

Brazilian politician brothers convicted of ordering murder of Rio city councillor

Two influential Brazilian politician brothers have been convicted by Brazil’s supreme court of ordering the murder of Marielle Franco, the Rio de Janeiro city councillor, nearly eight years ago. João Francisco Inácio Brazão, the former congressman known as Chiquinho, and the former adviser to Rio’s court of auditors Domingos Inácio Brazão were sentenced to 76 years and three months in prison for the murders of Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, 39. The crime was one of the most shocking and high-profile murders in Rio’s history and drew international attention: Franco, a gay Black woman, was a rising political star and an outspoken critic of police violence and corruption. The justices’ decision was unanimous, and the Brazão brothers were also convicted of the attempted murder of Fernanda Chaves, Franco’s press officer at the time, who was in the car and survived. The case is also widely seen by security experts and human rights activists as a chilling example of how the ties between politics, crime and the police are deeply entrenched in Rio, reaching even the highest levels of public administration. Franco’s sister, Anielle Franco, wrote on social media: “It was eight years of struggle to find out who ordered Marielle’s killing and why. It was eight years fighting for full justice. “Today Brazil’s justice system honoured the memory of Marielle and Anderson. Brazil begins a new historic chapter in confronting political violence based on gender and race. Impunity cannot be part of our democracy,” added Anielle, who is minister for racial equality in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Announcing her vote, Justice Cármen Lúcia said the proceedings had been “very painful” for her. “Human justice is not capable of soothing this pain. This trial is merely a timid, almost embarrassed testimony on my part of the response the law can offer in the face of the searing, atrocious pain borne on the faces of the mother, the daughter, the son, the widows,” added Lúcia, referring to the relatives of Franco and Gomes, who were present in the courtroom. The long journey of almost a decade to secure the convictions was marked by a tortuous series of twists that included the destruction of evidence, frequent changes in lead investigators and even the revelation that the then head of the homicide division, Rivaldo Barbosa, actively worked to obstruct the investigation. Barbosa was not convicted of murder on Wednesday, as the justices found there was insufficient evidence that he had taken part in the killings, but he was found guilty on the lesser charges of obstruction of justice and corruption for having received bribes from the Brazão brothers. The case was tried by the supreme court because Chiquinho was a congressman when his involvement was uncovered. The convictions came more than a year after two former police officers who carried out the killings were sentenced by a court in Rio. Ronnie Lessa, who fired the shots in the drive-by shooting, and Élcio de Queiroz, who drove the getaway car, were sentenced in October 2024 to decades in prison, but their sentences were reduced to a maximum of 30 years after they confessed and cooperated with investigators. Lessa, regarded as one of Rio’s most ruthless hitmen, said he had been hired by the Brazão brothers – long accused of involvement with paramilitary mafia groups known as militias – to kill Franco after becoming frustrated by her efforts to disrupt lucrative housing development schemes. “Marielle Franco became a highly significant obstacle to the economic and political interests of those who ordered the crime,” said the rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes. One of the most profitable activities of the militia led by the Brazão brothers was the illegal occupation of land – much of it in environmentally protected areas – followed by property development and the provision of services such as electricity and internet. Franco, who at the time served alongside Chiquinho on Rio’s city council, was a vocal advocate for housing rights and frequently warned residents not to join new illegal projects created by the militia. “Marielle Franco was a Black, poor woman who was confronting the interests of militiamen,” said Moraes. “What stronger message could they send? In the misogynistic, prejudiced minds of those who ordered and carried out the killing, who would care about this [her murder]?” The Brazão brothers’ lawyers focused their defence on attempting to discredit Lessa’s confession, arguing that there was no other evidence of their involvement in the crimes. However, all the justices agreed that, beyond the testimony, there was “abundant evidence” to support their convictions. Two former police officers were also convicted: Ronald Paulo de Alves Pereira, for monitoring Franco’s routine in the days leading up to the crime; and Robson Calixto Fonseca, known as The Fish, who will answer only for armed criminal organisation for having delivered the murder weapon to Lessa. Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International in Brazil, said the convictions were “a fundamental milestone, a chance to turn the page in the history of Rio and Brazil”. “First, because it affirms the need to protect human rights defenders. Fighting for rights cannot cost lives … Second, this decision also marks a turning point in the fight against impunity, so that crimes like this are not repeated,” she said.