RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nine months after a Rio politician was executed, local police discovered on Thursday a plan to assassinate another prominent left-wing leader.
Police said they received a tip indicating that state representative Marcelo Freixo was targeted by militia groups he had been fighting for years and was threatend to be killed in a political meeting next Saturday.
Freixo called for additional protection and criticized violence against elected authorities.
"It is inadmissible that, in the 21st century, these people threaten authorities in such a manner," he said.
Freixo added that he does not believe the attempt on his life is necessarily connected to the assassination of city councilor Marielle Franco.
Franco, who was Freixo's protege, was gunned down as she left a meeting in downtown Rio. Her driver Anderson Gomes was also killed.
The unsolved crime is believed to be linked to her political work or her denouncing of police abuses, and may have been initiated by the mafia-like militia groups, which have grown rampant in Rio to dominate areas of the city.
These groups, often comprising ex-policemen and firefighters, charge for protection and control the distribution of cooking gas and other necessities in poor communities.
