Opinion Guatemalan authorities fear truth. So they arrested Jos Rubn Zamora.
By the Editorial Board
August 4, 2022 at 12:54 p.m. EDT
José Rubén Zamora, president of the newspaper El Periódico, speaks with the media after a court hearing in Guatemala City late last month. (Johan Ordonez/AFP)
“This is not a case against my father, it is a systematic attack against freedom of expression and democracy. They started with the activists, continued on to the prosecutors and now they are starting to pursue journalists.”
That’s the truth about the recent arrest of renowned Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, articulated eloquently by his son, Ramón Zamora. In Guatemala, a country rife with corruption and government impunity, truth is hard to find. José Rubén Zamora, president and founder of the Guatemalan newspaper El Periódico, is one of the most important tellers of it. “Since I started as a journalist in 1989, I’ve denounced that we live in a narco-klepto-dictatorship that has us kidnapped and cowered,” Mr. Zamora told the crowd that gathered late last week to watch security forces escort him to the tribunal building. There, Mr. Zamora was spuriously charged with money-laundering, blackmail and influence-peddling. Guatemalan authorities also raided El Periódico’s offices, a move the Association of Guatemalan Journalists said was meant to censor Saturday’s print edition.
Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Guatemalan anti-impunity office, claimed Mr. Zamora’s arrest “has no relation in his capacity as a journalist” but rather “his capacity as a businessman.” Mr. Curruchiche offered no evidence to support this dubious assertion. Guatemala’s justice system has conveniently not yet provided any, either: Mr. Zamora’s appearance before a judge was canceled Monday, apparently because his case file was unavailable.
It’s exactly this kind of nontransparency that Mr. Zamora has spent his career trying to fight and for which he has been brutally targeted before. Since its founding in 1996, El Periódico has become well known for publishing investigations into the Guatemalan government, including into corruption allegations in President Alejandro Giammattei’s administration. Mr. Zamora has won numerous international awards for combating censorship and advocating for press freedom. It’s work he does at great personal risk: In 2003, gang members held Mr. Zamora hostage in his own home and beat his sons. In 2008, Mr. Zamora was drugged, abducted, robbed, beaten and left for dead.
It’s exactly this kind of nontransparency that Mr. Zamora has spent his career trying to fight and for which he has been brutally targeted before. Since its founding in 1996, El Periódico has become well known for publishing investigations into the Guatemalan government, including into corruption allegations in President Alejandro Giammattei’s administration. Mr. Zamora has won numerous international awards for combating censorship and advocating for press freedom. It’s work he does at great personal risk: In 2003, gang members held Mr. Zamora hostage in his own home and beat his sons. In 2008, Mr. Zamora was drugged, abducted, robbed, beaten and left for dead.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/guatemala-arrest-jose-ruben-zamora/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Guatemalan authorities to free detained newspaper director José Rubén Zamora at once and to abandon their offensive against critical and independent media. Zamora has been held since 29 July, when police arrested him at his Guatemala City home and raided his newspaper.
“The Guatemalan government has crossed a red line by jailing José Rubén Zamora,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America bureau. “This misuse of the judicial system for the purpose of censorship is unacceptable. It constitutes yet another attempt by the authorities to silence the newspaper elPeriódico and other critical media outlets. We call for the withdrawal of all charges against José Rubén Zamora and for his immediate release. His reporting and commitment to combatting corruption are crucial for the people of Guatemala.”
Zamora was with his family, including his grandchildren, when several detachments of heavily armed and hooded police accompanied by members of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) stormed into his home on the afternoon of 29 July and summarily took him away without offering any explanation.
During the raid, the police confiscated the phones and passports of family members who were present. At the same time, police raided the headquarters of Zamora’s newspaper, elPeriódico, and prevented the journalists who were there from communicating with anyone and from finishing production of that day’s edition.
Zamora is accused of blackmail, influence peddling and money laundering – charges that, according to the prosecutor’s office, are linked to his work as a company director and not in any way to “his activities as a journalist and newspaper founder.” This claim is surprising, to say the least, especially as, after freezing Zamora’s bank account on 29 July, the authorities went on to freeze elPeriódico’s accounts during the weekend, making it very for the newspaper to operate.
More:
https://rsf.org/en/newspaper-director-jailed-guatemala-s-increasingly-authoritarian-government