Key facts
- Polish anti-corruption activist Monika Silva Koniuszek was found dead in her home in Ecuador.
- Initial reports suggested suicide, but a postmortem revealed death by a blow to the head and strangulation.
- Activists allege her murder was to silence her investigation into President Daniel Noboa's family business.
- Silva Koniuszek had previously reported receiving death threats and being followed.
- The Polish prosecutor's office is seeking involvement in the investigation.
Campaigners in Ecuador allege that a Polish anti-corruption activist, Monika Silva Koniuszek, was murdered to silence her investigation into allegations against the family business of President Daniel Noboa. Silva Koniuszek, 41, was found dead in her home on June 8 with a noose around her neck. Initially, Ecuador's interior minister, John Reimberg, suggested suicide, citing evidence at the scene. However, a subsequent postmortem revealed the cause of death was a blow to the head and strangulation, leading activists and attorneys to assert it was a violent death.
Silva Koniuszek had dedicated the past decade to denouncing environmental crimes and corruption on social media and working with local journalists. She was reportedly investigating allegations that several tonnes of cocaine were seized in banana containers belonging to Noboa Trading, the fruit conglomerate owned by President Noboa's family, and that high-ranking judicial officials were obstructing these investigations. She had also looked into a land-trafficking ring involving politically connected figures in Santa Elena province. Friends reported that she had delivered a dossier of allegations to the U.S. embassy in Quito shortly before her death and had faced judicial harassment and explicit death threats, allegedly linked to crime networks responsible for other assassinations.
Her friend, Joanna Cuper, stated that Silva Koniuszek had claimed she was being followed and observed, and that cartels had placed a price on her head. Three years prior, her then-husband had moved their children to Brazil due to threats against her and her children. The Polish prosecutor's office has requested mutual legal assistance from Ecuadorian authorities to be involved in the investigation, and the Polish embassy in Peru emphasized the importance of protecting human rights defenders, journalists, and activists.