Brazil’s electoral year to be haunted by Rio’s city councilor murder

Since last year, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has expressed its concerns about how organized crime could tamper with our elections. From sponsoring corrupt candidates that would turn a blind eye to drug-trafficking gangs to hit jobs against combative politicians, the threat has been palpable.

Similarly, for this year’s election, the writing was on the wall: TSE discussed the potential for politicians to partner up with gang leaders, creating “no-go” zones and threatening candidates that are not part of the “crime consortium,” as the court says.

Still, no investigation was opened to prevent criminal organizations from influencing the elections. That’s despite gangs being able to control over 1.1 million votes across 19 constituencies in Rio de Janeiro, according to data from TSE itself.

The 2016 municipal elections were already the bloodiest campaign in Brazilian history. Between August and September of that year, at least 20 candidates for mayor of city council were murdered across the country. The information was released by a...