I’m still standing.

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”

Although the quote above has been attributed to Socrates, scholars in the web assert that there’s lack of direct evidence that it actually came from him.

It’s irrelevant if it did. What’s important is the unfortunate universal TRUTH its author expressed.

Over five months ago I was preparing to launch this MIRA! column. I announced I would write about a local’s perspective about the unbelievable events that happened in the United States’ territory of Puerto Rico.

It didn’t take long for the rug to be pulled from under my feet.

On July 2nd, 2021, I received the First Circuit’s decision on the most important case of my entire career, Cebollero Bertran v. PRASA, a citizen suit action under the Clean Water Act which I had argued remotely on February 3rd, 2021.

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s decision set a valuable precedent for hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico and throughout the nation affected by the Environmental Protection Agency’s or state equivalent’s lack of aggressive prosecution of environmental statutes. The First Circuit’s opinion did away with defendant’s argument that the existence of an administrative order, consent decree or pending enforcement case filed by the agency deprives the Court of jurisdiction on a citizen suit filed alleging subsequent and egregious statutory violations stemming from the operations included in the agency’s case.

The Court’s decision represented the culmination of decades of hard work in the pursuit of cleaning the waters in Puerto Rico.

Then my life fell into an abyss.

Days after I received the First Circuit’s opinion, I lost access to all my social media, clouds, and emails accounts. When I tried to regain them, the platforms would, make it impossible for me to do so. In fact, I’m still unable to access some of them, as is the case of my own web page, http://www.anatoledo.com.

For weeks and months, friends had avoided me. When the formal attack was unleashed, neighbors and acquaintances openly displayed an expression utter disgust.

They refused to answer my calls. They didn’t acknowledge my existence.

I felt my life’s accomplishments shattered in a matter of weeks. I never imagined that for decades my powerful tormentors had slowly prepared the terrain where they thought they would finally be able to ostracize me from society and silence my voice.

Then I found an envelope with the quote above. Handwritten in an envelope left behind a person who befriended me to harvest and provide information to my tormenters.

Photo by Kayla Maurais for Unsplash

IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND SALEM, THEY CALLED THEM WITCHES AND TORCHED TO DEATH.

TODAY, THEY CALL THEM CRAZY HO, PROMPTING THEIR SOCIAL, PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL OBLITERATION.

I became the pesky bilingual attorney with exceptional investigative talent whose intent on pursuing a writing career only meant trouble for her enemies.

She had to be taken care of.

Unbeknownst to me, a massive campaign to defame my character had been taking place for years. It was designed to destroy my character and reputation as well as mental capacity and honor. This, they thought, would undoubtedly result in an attempt to take my own life.

In the alternative, committing me to a mental hospital would suffice to do away with my credibility.

Forever.

Although the targeting and gang-stalking that had gone on for decades reverberated in all aspects of my life, I hadn’t realized it was a concerted effort of powerful tyrants. I’m a firm believer that all bad things happen for a good reason – even when it may take years to discover why things happened as they did.

For the most part of my adult life, I have followed the advice of Caroline Myss – a favorite of mine—when encountering adversity. I never stop to ask God why things happened the way they did. I only ask for him to “Show Me the Lesson”.

I also seek to live my days being the best person I can be, honoring Thomas Merton’s adage: “This day will never come again.”

Yet, the main reason I didn’t realize I was a victim of such persecution was that it would have never occurred to me that the difficult, tragic and even atrocious events that happened to me resulted from the malfeasance of people that society deemed as good, successful, reputable professionals.

On March 17, 2020, Puerto Rico went into months of Covid-19 lockdown that isolated everyone in society. Until January of 2021, Puerto Rico was one of the strictest jurisdictions locking people up in their homes.

My only companions during those difficult months were my dog and cats.

During the months of confinement, I wrote articles discussing the unconstitutionality and abuse of power of most of the provisions contained in the lockdown mandates. This served to embolden my enemies who successfully obliterated my financial freedom, reputation, social relations, and property.

Money can do wonders to evaporate loyalty. The few people I deemed my closest friends as well as acquaintances, colleagues, and relatives showed no qualms in collaborating with the purveyors towards my demise.

The magnitude of annihilation and defamation of character perpetrated against me was undoubtedly the culmination of decades of planning. It entailed an expenditure of millions of dollars.

UNBEKNOWNST TO ME, FOR YEARS I HAD BEEN THE CHICKEN OF THE GOLDEN EGGS FOR MANY.

My tormentors successfully forced me into indigence. I had worked hard to be a free thinker and avoid being cancelled. My primary income was the rental of my property in Old San Juan. That allowed me to engage in non-paying endeavors such as writing and fighting for improving the conditions in my beloved birthplace of Puerto Rico.

Annihilating my source of income came easy to them. They enabled my unscrupulous former tenant to stay at the property for 8 months without paying rent. When I regained the property on June 5th, 2021, he had irremediably vandalized it, making it unsuitable for renting. Repairs and equipment to return it to acceptable conditions exceed $80,000.00.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

I’m still chased and tormented daily. My emails are intercepted and filtered.

But for the Grace of God, and the few honest and courageous persons whose genuine love and appreciation for me that helped me survive such heartless and massive attack, I wouldn’t be on this earth today.

I love life unconditionally. I get goosebumps upon witnessing the miracles of nature, listening to a beautiful poem, or watching a majestic artistic performance.

Helping others brings me the most satisfaction in life.

I don’t want to leave this plane without making a positive difference in the world proportional to the talents God generously bestowed upon me.

Now, more than ever, my hope is to make the World a better place.

Having looked at evil in the face, I am even more committed to it. As we like to boast in Puerto Rico:

LOS BUENOS SOMOS MÁS !

(We, the good ones, outnumber the bad.)

From these heartfelt convictions I have derived the inspiration and strength to sit down and write to you today.

Let’s do this.