Woman Behind Effort to Stop Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Found Dead in Swimming Pool
April 12th, 2018Via: MemoryHole:
On Tuesday, April 10 Washington DC authorities recovered the body of Key West-based environmental activist Milagro de Mier from the pool of a hotel close to the DC Convention Center . de Mier was in the nation’s capital to raise awareness and petition the US Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency on a British biotech company’s plan to release 50 million genetically-modified mosquitoes in Florida and Texas on a weekly basis.
The environmental activist and real estate agent was 45, and the mother of three. “These GMO mosquitoes could pose major risks to fragile ecosystems like the Florida Keys and Texas,” de Mier argued on the page of her Change.org petition, “and may pose risks to public health and safety.
Fox News5 reports on April 10:
Authorities said they were called to the Cambria Hotel & Suites Washington, D.C. Convention Center in the 890 block of O Street, NW at about 9:40 a.m.
According to a police report, a witness found an unconscious woman floating inside the rooftop pool and called 911.
More: Miami Herald: Anti-GMO Mosquito Activist Dies in a Swimming Pool
In Global Witness’s first report published in 2014, when they went back over 12 years’ worth of data and over 900 deaths of environmental and land defenders [from 2002 to 2013], there were only 10 cases where perpetrators were arrested, tried, and convicted. If that’s even close to accurate, that’s 1%.
One reason why governments, especially at the local level, fail to take adequate steps to protect people is that government officials themselves are being paid off or are in collusion with powerful economic interests. Often, the environmental activists are seen as standing in the way of “progress,” whether it means building this dam or awarding that mining concession or commercial water take (selling it to the public as “providing more jawbs for the locals!!” — low-paying jobs for the tax slaves, with the big profits going to the multi-national corporations and the elites who own them).
I myself have been personally threatened repeatedly by a wealthy dairy farmer neighbour who was angry at my reporting his illegal water take, his illegal destruction of a rare freshwater wetland, and his ongoing severe E.coli dairy runoff pollution to a stream heading to a natural freshwater springs that is one of my country’s national treasures. How does the local government respond? Well, they’ve been protecting the powerful dairy interests for decades, and so they simply endlessly blather about “investigating” the “allegations” and “needing to gather more evidence,” even though more than enough evidence has been provided. They then claim that they are “working with” the farmer to “rectify” things, and refuse to give details. Right. No fines, no prosecution, no stoppage of the illegal water take, no requirement to restore the wetland — in short, no following of their own published rules for dealing with environmental offending. Just a vague “it’s being looked into, but we’re so busy with so many other more important issues”. There is no disincentive for this dairy farmer to stop his illegal activities because he knows that local government has his back.
And if an environmental activist starts reporting this illegal environmental destruction to the local press to try to force the government to do their jobs, you know what happens next. Local government responds with an assurance to the public that “they are looking into the matter,” and then leans on the little local newspaper to censor that activist’s Letters to the Editor, because local government is one of the biggest ad buyers in that local rag. It’s always about the money …
So, our tax dollars pay for the high salaries of these government “environmental managers” so that they have a large staff and the power to counter and eventually effectively silence individual environmental activists or small, all-volunteer, poorly funded local environmental protection groups.
May the hero Milagro de Mier rest in peace.
@Pookie
I’d always assumed you lived in the USA, but now I think you’re edging on the Roaring 40s.
You’ve met me before, Dennis.
Cue the 1970 R&B song by the Delfonics: “Didn’t I Blow your Mind (this Time).
Mind blown. Um…Do we have a mutual friend by the name of Judith? Trawling memory banks…
Negative.
I won’t doxx myself.
Also, we’re OT …