Nicaragua’s independent press expressed its solidarity with journalist José Rubén Zamora, president of El Periódico, a Guatemalan media outlet, following his arrest on Friday night, July 29. The arrest of the prominent Guatemalan journalist was preceded by the search of his home and the writing of the newspaper in Guatemala City.
According to the prosecutor in charge of the case in the Public Ministry, Rafael Curruchiche, the journalist is accused of the crimes of blackmail, influence peddling and money laundering, adding that the case is “under reserve” so it cannot be disclose more information about it.
Journalist Jennifer Ortiz, director of Nicaragua Investiga, explained that it is “unfortunate” to see how the region is moving towards “authoritarianism” and that the countries of Central America become “unviable and insecure” places to do journalism.
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«El Salvador, Nicaragua and now Guatemala are hostile scenarios for the free press. It is just a sample of how uncomfortable auditing journalism is for power and also a sign that this type of journalism is needed if you really want to transform a country,” Ortiz said.
The journalist expressed her solidarity with Zamora and called on the international community to be more “vigilant of how political power has become a great threat to journalism that is already struggling with the onslaught that drug trafficking and gangs have promoted by years to silence the complaints about the crimes they commit.
Guatemala copies the Nicaraguan dictatorship
Journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau, director of 100% Noticias, condemned Zamora’s imprisonment and assured that unfortunately the Guatemalan government “copies” the Nicaraguan dictatorship by accusing him of the crime of money laundering, the same crime as the dictatorship of Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega accuses the journalist and presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro Barrios.
«Dictatorships, authoritarian regimes like Guatemala, want to hide and crush the truth, their corruption imprisoning journalists. Those accused of corruption, like the sanctioned prosecutor in Guatemala, want to destroy the truth. The international community must act with force”, affirmed Pineda Ubau.
«Ortega gave the example of persecuting, imprisoning journalists, confiscating, raiding media outlets and now Guatemala is copying him. I ask the international community not to allow another dictatorship like that of Nicaragua, in Guatemala », he added.
The journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of Confidencial, demanded the freedom of the president of El Periódico, José Rubén Zamora, and demanded that there be no “impunity for the authoritarian regimes of Central America.”
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“We Confidencial journalists in exile stand in solidarity with José Rubén Zamora and El Periódico, raided and captured by Alejandro Giammattei (President of Guatemala). No to censorship in Guatemala », he wrote on his Twitter account.
Journalist Wilfredo Miranda, co-founder of Divergentes, stated that the raid on the Guatemalan newsroom is “very serious” and “even more so is the arrest of José Rubén Zamora,” president of El Periódico in Guatemala. «A judicial attack that equates the Giammattei government with the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in its relentless persecution against journalism. I repeat: serious », he stressed.
Zamora and his media have been opponents of the government presided over by Alejandro Giammattei with the publication of dozens of reports of corruption in the Executive and on the Public Ministry in recent years.
Zamora received in June 2021, from the hands of the King of Spain, Felipe VI, the Outstanding Media Award in Ibero-America, as part of the King of Spain International Journalism Awards.
The journalist, founder and president of El Periódico, denounced in October 2021 that before public opinion that Giammattei, together with the attorney general and head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras, “are fabricating” a case against him to imprison him.
The publications of Zamora and El Periódico in the last decade evidenced various acts of corruption in the governments of Otto Pérez Molina and his vice president, Roxana Baldetti (2021-2015), but also in the administrations of Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) and the Giammattei himself.
