Where is Amarildo? – Who killed Marielle? – state-sanctioned circulations, online memes and black presence in the cityscape of Rio de Janeiro

This article explores the circulation of the names Amarildo and Marielle in the online and offline urban space of Rio de Janeiro. These names, and the questions, “who killed Marielle and ‘where is Amarildo?’ refer to Mr Amarildo de Souza, who was forcibly disappeared by the military police in the context of the ‘pacification’ of the Rocinha Favela and the Black congresswoman, Marielle Franco, who was murdered by right-wing militias. Analysing the circulation of these questions on street signs, and its movement to the online space of social media via the hashtags ‘#CadêAmarildo?’ and ‘#QuemmatouMarielle’, I argue that the act of asking for victims of state violence disrupts the urban space envisioned by colonial discourses of the ‘pacified’ and depoliticized city by enacting subjects that are both present and absent, thus disrupting the official discourse and practice of security and development where subjects circulate according to racialised and gendered conceptions of risk, threat and neoliberal productivity.