Environmentalist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán’s death is part of a disturbing trend | Steven Donziger

What happened in Atlanta is clearly part of a dangerous trend of US law enforcement attacking climate leaders

Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, a brave environmentalist known as Tortuguita was shot and killed by the police on January 18 as he encamped in a forest he and other activists have been trying to defend from being razed and turned into an enormous $90m urban warfare" style police academy. This tragedy is an obscene escalation in the decades long war the United States has been waging on climate activists.

What's even more troubling is the lack of contrition exhibited by the state that is responsible for his death. Since Tortuguita's murder, the governor of Georgia, the police, and their allies, the pro-corporate courts, have doubled down. Seven of the surviving protesters from Atlanta have been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism" following the fatal shooting of their comrade by the police.