Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, founder of the newspaper The newspaper in 1996, announced this Saturday that he had declared a hunger strike in protest against his arrest and also said that he fears for his life.
“I will go on a hunger strike,” Zamora said from inside a jail where he is being held in the Court Tower. This while he awaits his hearing before a judge on duty who must notify him of the reasons for his capture.
The well-known journalist said that he has already stopped consuming water in protest at his capture recorded on Friday at his residence, after the security forces led by the Public Ministry (MP-Prosecutor’s Office) conducted a raid on the building and the headquarters of the daily.
“For the moment I have stopped consuming water, coffee and food as a small show of protest to my imprisonment. I consider myself a political prisoner », he said.
He denounced that the arrest is a “conspiracy” and a “political persecution.” He also fears for his life because he doesn’t know where the judge will send him, since he has enemies in all the prisons in the country.
In the statements published by his outlet, Zamora stated that he does not believe in the justice of Guatemalato. Tamalso that it will be “somewhat difficult to reach places where there are people who have had a conflict with The Newspaper«.
The hearing before the judge on duty will be held in the next few hours. It will determine the future of the journalist, who has been one of the main critics of the governments of the day.
According to the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) of the Public Ministry, Rafael Curruchiche, who requested the arrest, this is for the crimes of money laundering, influence peddling, blackmail and money laundering conspiracy.
Complaint
The journalist, founder and president of The newspaperdenounced in October 2021 that President Alejandro Giammattei, together with the attorney general and head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, were preparing a case against him to imprison him.
Porras was sanctioned in September 2021 by the United States on charges of obstructing justice in Guatemala. Despite this, Giammattei re-elected her last May for four more years.
