Guatemalan journalist released due to fear for the future

GUATEMALA CITY –

When Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora returned to his home without conviction after more than two years in prison, he found it empty. He said it smelled of desolation after his family fled the country for fear they would suffer the same fate.

On Monday, a week after his release, Zamora discussed his own uncertain future in an interview with The Associated Press, amid the shadow of efforts to keep him behind bars and his concerns about other journalists doing the kind of investigative work he did.

Not only have Guatemalan journalists – including eight from the El Periodico publishing house he founded – been forced into exile under threat of prosecution, but those who remain struggle with the fear that if they investigate, they could “end up in jail.” . said.

The 68-year-old journalist, who lives in the spotlight, is shy and does not like to be the target of news.

He said he still feels the aftermath of captivity in his bones, as well as in his daily life, after the financing of his legal defense forced him to sell his assets, only thanks to the support of his children.

“Honestly, the feeling of not having money, which is mine, is complicated and I don’t have the means to make ends meet,” he said.

The interview comes after a long journey for Zamora, who has worked as a journalist for the past thirty years. Twenty-four of those years were spent as president of El Periodico, the news organization he founded to investigate corruption in Guatemala.

It’s a dangerous subject to explore in a country like Guatemala, where the attorney general’s office has raided election facilities, seized and opened ballot boxes, and attacked current President Bernardo Arevalo’s Seed Movement party in an effort to prevent him from coming to power.

To this day, Zamora believes it was his newspaper’s investigative work that led to him being targeted by prosecutors. In particular, it was his sharp criticism of former President Alejandro Giammattei and his ally, current Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who were sanctioned by the United States for allegedly obstructing corruption investigations.

Porras’ agents raided Zamora’s home in July 2022 and arrested him, accusing him of money laundering after he asked a friend to deposit $38,000, which Zamora said was a donation to his news organization.

Zamora said he did not put the money in the bank himself because the person who made the donation feared reprisals for his support of the media. He was initially sentenced to six years, a sentence that was annulled due to procedural errors.

He was later charged with forging documents and faced a second trial for allegedly lying to him in the first case.

He was finally released at the end of October, after a judge ruled that two years of pre-trial detention was contrary to national and international human rights law.

After his release, President Arevalo was one of his first visitors.

“I explained to him that in Guatemala there have never been institutions dedicated to control or strict supervision,” Zamora said. “That is why the press is so important: there is no prosecution or punishment for the corrupt, but there are walls of impunity.”

Zamora said he was happy to finally speak to his family, but it was clear he was still living with the consequences of his two years in prison and a deep sense of uncertainty about what comes next.

After his arrest, his newspaper El Periodico disappeared. Eight of the journalists and columnists live in exile, as do his family, because they published articles about the abuse of power by judges and prosecutors – including about his case.

Because Porras remains attorney general, Zamora worries he could be thrown back in prison.

He said he no longer has a job and worries about friends, family and even people he speaks to at the DA’s office when he has to do his mandatory regular check-ins.

“I worry about people greeting me because they may face some consequences,” he said.

All that remains of his old life are stacks of old copies of his newspaper in the garage of his home.