00:00And as Brazilian far-right presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro becomes embroiled in the latest bank fraud scandal in recent history,
00:07many are remembering his close relationship to Rio de Janeiro's organized crime militias.
00:12Our correspondent Brian Mir with the story.
00:16Half of the territory in Rio de Janeiro is controlled by organized crime groups run by current or former military
00:22police officers that are called militias.
00:24These gangs operate a lot like the Italian mafia, charging protection money from local businesses and enforcing strict rules in
00:32their territory,
00:33often torturing and killing people accused of crimes like petty theft.
00:37For years, they've had a close relationship with presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and his family.
00:43His state parliamentarians will give back part of their salaries to him and he used to invest in condominium construction
00:51in militia-dominated areas under his electoral control.
00:55La Rio de las Petras and Gardenia Azul.
00:58Flavio Bolsonaro invested in these rapidly developing areas.
01:03This was his gang espoused in his payroll scheme and scandal and we see these are also the areas where
01:12he received the most votes.
01:15When Socialist City Councilwoman Marielle Franco was assassinated in 2018,
01:20the first man arrested, Rani Lessa, was a neighbor of Jair Bolsonaro's, whose daughter had once dated Bolsonaro's son.
01:27Lessa was a member of the Crime Office Militia, whose leader, Adriano da Nobrega, was killed by police while hiding
01:34out in Bahia before he could talk.
01:36Years earlier, Jair and Flavio Bolsonaro visited Nobrega in prison and once he was out, Flavio paid homage to him
01:43on the floor of Rio's state assembly.
01:47The militias, its own business owners, terrorized the local population and sold drugs in partnership with the trafficking factions.
01:54Now we have a candidate for the presidency from my state, the heart of Bolsonarismo and also the heart of
02:00a lot of resistance to it,
02:02who, when he was a state lawmaker, paid homage to Adriano da Nobrega, both of the Crime Office Militia and
02:10for years and years,
02:12Flavio Bolsonaro employed the girlfriend and mother of Nobrega, a murderous torturing militia leader in his cabinet.
02:19This February, Congressman Chiquinho Brazón was ruled guilty in ordering the murder of Marielle Franco.
02:26Another local strongman from Rio's militia-dominated West Side, Flavio Bolsonaro regularly campaigned with him during election seasons.
02:35Brian Mir, Telesur, Recife.
02:38Brian Mir, Telesur, Recife.
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