The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Andrea Bolaños, has urged Ecuador to conduct a swift, thorough and independent investigation into the death of Monika Silva Koniuszek, a Polish-born activist found dead at her home in Montañita, a coastal town in Santa Elena province, on June 8.

A postmortem carried out in Guayaquil determined that Koniuszek, 41, died from a blow to the head and strangulation, contradicting an initial statement by interior minister John Reimberg, who said before autopsy results were available that the evidence pointed to suicide. According to The Guardian, attorney Lita Martínez, director of the Ecuadorian Centre for the Promotion and Action of Women (Cepam), said the forensic findings made the suicide hypothesis untenable.

Koniuszek had spent roughly a decade documenting environmental crimes and corruption on social media and alongside local journalists in Santa Elena. Colleagues said she had recently begun investigating Noboa Trading, the fruit conglomerate belonging to the family of President Daniel Noboa, pursuing allegations that cocaine had been seized in the company's banana containers and that senior Ecuadorian judicial officials were obstructing the investigation. Shortly before her death, she reportedly delivered a dossier of allegations to the US embassy in Quito. She had also investigated claims that politically connected figures in Santa Elena were involved in a land-trafficking ring.

Speaking to The Guardian, fellow activist and British author Beth Pitts, who collaborated with her on local campaigns, described Silva Koniuszek as someone who publicly denounced corruption and environmental crimes when others were too afraid to speak out. Friends said she had been receiving explicit death threats and facing judicial harassment, allegedly linked to networks connected to the November 2025 assassination of local journalist Robinson del Pezo. Polish friend Joanna Cuper told broadcaster TVP Info that Silva Koniuszek had told her she was being followed, and that cartels had placed a price on her head. Three years ago her then-husband took their two daughters to Brazil following threats against the family.

Bolaños, who described the case as far from isolated, on June 22 called on Ecuador to "end the persecution and criminalisation of human rights defenders and strengthen institutional protection mechanisms." Poland's prosecutor's office confirmed it had requested mutual legal assistance from Ecuadorian authorities, while the Polish embassy in Peru called for accountability and stressed the importance of protecting human rights defenders and journalists.

The Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDH) and Cepam urged investigators not to rule out femicide or the possibility that her activism was the motive for the killing.