Atlanta shooting part of alarming US crackdown on environmental defenders

Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalized

The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.

The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as Tortuguita" or Little Turtle," in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy", according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters.