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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sarah Johnson in Santo Domingo

‘Water is worth more than gold’: eco-activist Esteban Polanco on why violence won’t stop him

A man in a shirt and jeans standing in a classroom with empty desks
Esteban Polanco is known for his role in stopping gold mining destroying Loma de Blanco mountain, where he lives in the Dominican Republic. Photograph: Pedro Farias-Nardi/The Guardian

While making his way from his home in Loma de Blanco, a mountain in the middle of the Dominican Republic, to the nearby town of Bonao, Esteban Polanco was attacked by a group of about 10 men. They threw a molotov cocktail at the car in which he was travelling with two of his children, before running off. The family survived, but Polanco suffered terrible burns.

“I was close to death, and it took a year to recover,” he says of the 2007 attack. Some, but not all, of the perpetrators were later imprisoned.

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