Campaigners in Ecuador say a Polish anti-corruption activist who investigated allegations against the family business of the country’s president was murdered to silence her.
Monika Silva Koniuszek, 41, was found dead in her home in Montanita, a coastal town in Ecuador’s Santa Elena Province. The single mother of daughters aged four and nine, was found on June 8 on the floor with a noose around her neck.
A day after her death, and before autopsy results had been released, Ecuadoran Minister of the Interior John Reimberg said that the initial hypothesis was that it was a suicide.
Photo: AFP
“The necessary evidence to reach that conclusion was found at the scene,” he told local media.
However, on Friday, a postmortem in Guayaquil found that the cause of death was a blow to the head and strangulation.
“Based on the forensic reports, we are certain that this was a violent death; therefore, the alleged suggestion that it was a suicide falls apart,” said attorney Lita Martinez, director of the Ecuadoran Center for the Promotion and Action of Women.
Silva Koniuszek had spent the last decade denouncing environmental crimes and corruption on social media, and working with local journalists.
“You don’t need to be born in Ecuador to love it and defend what is right,” she wrote on her social media profiles.
“Monika was the bravest person I have ever met,” said Beth Pitts, 47, a British author and fellow activist who collaborated with her in local campaigns.
“She was often a lone voice, publicly and vociferously denouncing corruption and environmental crimes when everyone else was too afraid to speak out,” said Pitts, who has lived in Ecuador for 13 years and lived near Silva Koniuszek in a neighboring village.
“Beyond her activism, she was a dedicated single mother and a wonderful friend. Even when she was receiving death threats, she would still take the time to ask how I was doing and offer her support,” she added.
Colleagues said Silva Koniuszek had begun to investigate Noboa Trading, the fruit conglomerate belonging to the family of Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa.
They said she had been pursuing allegations that several tonnes of cocaine had been seized in Noboa Trading banana containers, but high-ranking Ecuadoran judicial officials were stalling the investigations.
Shortly before she was killed, she told friends that she had delivered a dossier of allegations to the US embassy in Quito.
She had also investigated allegations that politically connected figures in Santa Elena province were implicated in a massive land-trafficking ring.
Friends said that Silva Koniuszek was facing judicial harassment and explicit death threats, allegedly linked to the same crime networks that assassinated a fellow activist, local journalist Robinson del Pezo, in November last year.
Silva Koniuszek’s death made headlines in her native Poland, with skepticism over early reports suggesting she took her own life.
Her friend, Joanna Cuper, told the Polish broadcaster TVP Info that the activist had claimed she was “followed and observed.”
“None of us believe she killed herself,” she said.
“She said that the cartels had put a price on her head. Three years ago, her then husband took the children to Brazil because she was receiving threats that she and her children would be murdered,” Cuper added.
The Polish prosecutor’s office confirmed last week that it had requested mutual legal assistance from the Ecuadoran authorities probing her death, and suggested it would want to be closely involved in the investigation.
The Polish embassy in neighboring Peru said it hoped “the competent authorities will conduct a swift, thorough, independent and transparent investigation” to “clarify the circumstances of the case and ensure accountability.”
“The embassy of the Republic of Poland emphasizes the importance of protecting human rights defenders, journalists, social activists and all individuals engaging in civic life,” it added.
The community in Montanita created a shrine to Silva Koniuszek, with photographs and flowers, and kept candles burning for several days. Local street artists painted a mural, with neighbors renaming a street after her.
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