Ecuador Joins UNESCO Campaign to Prevent Trafficking of Cultural Property<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe following day, Interior Minister John Reimberg stated that Silva-Koniuszek appeared to have died by suicide, according to the initial evidence gathered at her home. However, the official acknowledged that the autopsy results will determine with certainty what occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On social media, however, human rights defenders have alleged that she was murdered, arguing that sufficient background exists to sustain that hypothesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For at least a year, Silva-Koniuszek had been denouncing the irregular sale of more than 700 hectares in the Capaes area, where the land was sold without a public auction in 2022 by then-Mayor Otto Vera Palacios for US$6.2 million. The case gained prominence because the transaction allegedly involved the administration of La Libertad Mayor Francisco Tamariz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April, Silva-Koniuszek also denounced the existence of an alleged network of nepotism and influence peddling involving Comptroller General Mauricio Torres, whom she accused of acting as a \u201cwall\u201d to prevent anti-corruption investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few weeks before her death, the environmental activist warned that she had been threatened and held authorities responsible should anything happen to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn Wednesday, March 4, while I was at the Santa Elena Judicial Council, I received two warnings about a planned contract killing against me. I hold the Ecuadorian state responsible not only for failing to prevent this potential disaster, but also for potentially facilitating it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is not easy to kill me. And I do not say that out of arrogance or madness \u2014 quite the opposite. For years I have explained to the thousands of citizens who support me, pray for me and worry about me that what keeps me alive is my lack of fixed schedules, a life in constant movement, and the protection provided by my own community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only way to locate me and know my \u2018schedules and movements\u2019 is through a surveillance system. This surveillance system has existed since Nov. 21 and was installed just 22 hours after Robinson\u2019s death,\u201d Silva-Koniuszek stated, referring to the 2025 killing of communicator Robinson del Pezo, who was shot to death in Santa Elena province as a result of his reports on land trafficking and political corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Monday, Monika Silva-Koniuszek, a Polish-born environmental defender, was found dead in Santa Elena province on Ecuador’s coast. RELATED: Ecuador Joins UNESCO Campaign to Prevent Trafficking of Cultural Property The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[8],"class_list":["post-11504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"authors":[{"term_id":8,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"yolaunicaquehay","display_name":"RRebeldeAdminWP","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6145d63ff95c9a0f0e53b7149804b1faf86748d6cc15f466103269a288ea377?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11507,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11504\/revisions\/11507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11504"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}