Zamora was arrested in 2022 following a raid in which he was not informed of the charges against him. In less than 72 hours, authorities fabricated charges of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling. His first hearing, however, did not take place within the 24-hour legal timeframe after his detention, marking the beginning of a judicial process plagued by irregularities.

Since then, the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened three baseless criminal cases against Zamora, systematically violating his rights to due process, legal defense, and the presumption of innocence. The prosecution and judicial system have acted in bad faith, building a case designed to send a message that critical journalism will be silenced in the country.

This date now marks, in practice, the fulfillment of a sentence for crimes he did not commit.

The persecution did not stop with Zamora: Since his arrest, elPeriódico’s newsroom has faced relentless legal and financial attacks, ultimately leading to the newspaper’s closure. A criminal investigation was opened against nine additional journalists on staff and the remaining members of his family were threatened with criminal charges and forced into exile.  

Despite favorable rulings that have exposed the abuse of power by certain judicial entities, and despite international recognition from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and UN experts that his detention is arbitrary – and that he has been exposed to forms of torture – Jose Rubén Zamora remains behind bars.

The signatory organizations demand his immediate release, the full restoration of his fundamental human rights, and an end to his political persecution.

Signatory organizations

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Protection International Mesoamérica
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR)
Freedom House
Article 19 México y Centroamérica
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
IFEX-ALC
Latin American Working Group (LAWG)

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Since February, social media accounts known in Guatemala as “net centers” have targeted Rivera, co-director of the news agency Km. 169, which publishes the independent news websites Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda. The accounts flooded social media platform X with false and defamatory posts accusing the journalist of accepting foreign funding, collaborating with organized crime, and serving as a mouthpiece for the government.

“Authorities must take immediate steps to end these coordinated attacks and protect Nelton Rivera from efforts to silence him through public defamation and legal threats,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “Criminalizing journalists through smear campaigns and anonymous networks is a serious threat to press freedom in Guatemala.”

The campaign escalated in March and April, with dozens of posts reviewed by CPJ spreading manipulated images, threats of prosecution, and calls for Rivera’s arrest. Several posts include images showing Rivera behind bars next to prominent jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora, suggesting he will be imprisoned next.

Net centers, which are troll farms that use anonymous or pseudonymous accounts to spread disinformation and attacks on journalists and others, have been linked to political actors and officials inside the public prosecutor’s office. CPJ and other organizations have documented their involvement in past campaigns that preceded criminal charges against journalists — including those from elPeriódico, the newspaper founded by Zamora.

CPJ reached out to the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, journalist and founder of the media outlet elPeriódico, was arrested on July 29, 2022, on charges of financial crimes and held in preventive detention for more than 800 days. On October 18, 2024, an appeals court granted Zamora’s provisional release to house arrest. However, on March 4, 2025, the Third Chamber of the Criminal Court of Appeals partially annulled the process and reversed the decision that granted substitutive measures, ordering Zamora back to jail. The next day, Zamora’s legal team filed a constitutional amparo action before the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the March 4 appeals court decision, and seeking to protect Zamora’s human rights, particularly his right to liberty. On March 10, 2025, the Court complied with the decision of the Third Chamber, and Zamora was remanded in custody.

The amicus brief, filed in support of the amparo, urges the Court to maintain the criteria of the lower court that determined Zamora’s trial could move forward under alternative measures, “without the need to remain in pretrial detention.” It states that “not granting [the] amparo in favor of Mr. José Rubén Zamora Marroquín would constitute a serious violation of his rights under international standards.”

The brief also stated that: 

“Should this Court decide to grant the amparo, Mr. Zamora would be able to return to obtaining substitutive measures instead of serving several more years in pretrial detention without a final sentence. The alleged flight risk supporting the remand is unsubstantiated, as Mr. Zamora has consistently demonstrated his compliance with imposed restrictions, and with the home detention regime in general.

Mr. Zamora’s extended deprivation of liberty is unnecessary and unjustified, given that he has not been convicted with a final sentence. This situation violates international human rights standards such as the right to liberty, the exceptionality of pre-trial detention and the presumption of innocence.” 

In the brief, the signatory organizations cite the May 2024 opinion of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Zamora’s case. The Working Group determined that Zamora’s ongoing imprisonment constituted arbitrary detention and violated multiple international human rights standards and called on the Guatemalan government to “remedy Mr. Zamora’s situation without delay and bring it into compliance with relevant international standards.”

The brief highlights the profound negative effects of detention on the physical and mental health of the 68-year-old journalist, including significant weight loss, skin and digestive issues, and other adverse effects. It points to significant delays and inconsistencies in the criminal proceedings against Zamora, and argues that prosecutors and appeals courts have failed to present sufficient evidence to justify the need for preventive detention in this case.

The brief also notes the retaliatory nature of the case. Numerous international organizations, including many of the brief signatories, have repeatedly raised concerns about the case’s broader impact on press freedom in Guatemala, and the use of criminal proceedings to intimidate journalists and human rights defenders like José Rubén Zamora. 

“The circumstances of Mr. Zamora’s detention indicate that it is used as a punishment and not to prevent him from escaping or hindering the case. Pretrial detention is a means of silencing his journalistic activities, rather than responding to legitimate criminal procedural concerns,” it says. 

###

About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Signatories and Press Contacts

Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice – Natalie Southwick, nsouthwick@nycbar.org

CIVICUS – media@civicus.org

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) press@cpj.org

Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) – Karen Arita, karita@dplf.org

Reporteros Sin Fronteras (RSF) – Artur Romeu, aromeu@rsf.org

Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) – Ana María Méndez-Dardón, amendez@wola.org

Article 19 México y Centroamérica

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) 

Protection International Mesoamérica

Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP)

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Judge Erick García ordered Zamora’s return to prison on March 10, executing a appeals court order that revoked the journalist’s house arrest. At the hearing, García reported threats and intimidation, raising concerns over judicial independence and press freedom in Guatemala.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled in July 2024 that Zamora’s continued imprisonment violated international law. A TrialWatch report detailed severe due process violations in Zamora’s case, concluding that his prosecution was likely retaliation for his investigative journalism.

Zamora, founder of the now-defunct elPeriódico, was arrested in July 2022 and faces money laundering and obstruction of justice charges that have been widely condemned as politically motivated. His defense has rejected all accusations.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The decision to return journalist José Rubén Zamora to prison is a blatant act of judicial persecution. This case represents a dangerous escalation in the repression of independent journalism,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “We call on authorities to release him immediately, stop using the justice system to silence critical journalism, and to respect press freedom and due process.”

Zamora’s return to jail on money laundering charges that have been widely condemned as politically motivated was ordered by Judge Erick García, who had initially granted Zamora house arrest on Oct. 18, 2024. García said during Monday’s hearing that he and his staff had been threatened and intimidated by unknown individuals, according to a report by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre.

Zamora, 67, was first arrested on July 29, 2022, and spent more than 800 days in pretrial detention before being placed under house arrest. A pioneering investigative journalist, Zamora has faced decades of harassment and persecution for his work, which CPJ has extensively documented. He received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995 for his commitment to independent journalism. His newspaper, elPeriódico, was forced to shut down in 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The decision to return journalist José Rubén Zamora to prison is a blatant act of judicial persecution. This case represents a dangerous escalation in the repression of independent journalism,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “We call on authorities to release him immediately, stop using the justice system to silence critical journalism, and to respect press freedom and due process.”

Zamora’s return to jail on money laundering charges that have been widely condemned as politically motivated was ordered by Judge Erick García, who had initially granted Zamora house arrest on Oct. 18, 2024. García said during Monday’s hearing that he and his staff had been threatened and intimidated by unknown individuals, according to a report by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre.

Zamora, 67, was first arrested on July 29, 2022, and spent more than 800 days in pretrial detention before being placed under house arrest. A pioneering investigative journalist, Zamora has faced decades of harassment and persecution for his work, which CPJ has extensively documented. He received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995 for his commitment to independent journalism. His newspaper, elPeriódico, was forced to shut down in 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Zamora, 67, spent 813 days in prison, accused of money laundering, until he was granted house arrest on October 18, 2024. The following month, a Guatemalan appeals court ordered Zamora back to jail, but he has remained in house arrest until his appeal is heard.

“It’s inhumane what the Guatemalan judicial system is doing to journalist José Rubén Zamora,” said CPJ’s Latin American program coordinator, Cristina Zahar. “His presumption of innocence was shattered for more than two years when he was arbitrarily detained. He must be immediately released.”

In June 2023, Zamora was sentenced to six years imprisonment on money laundering charges, which were criticized as politically motivated.

CPJ has repeatedly urged the Guatemalan government to end Zamora’s prosecution and the harassment of his family and his journalist colleagues.

CPJ called the Supreme Court but didn’t get an immediate response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The decision is a new blow to press freedom in Guatemala. Zamora, president of the now defunct elPeriódico newspaper, had already spent 813 days in jail and experienced years of government harassment after his reporting challenged the country’s political elite. 

Zamora was sentenced to six years imprisonment in June 2023 on money laundering charges, which were widely criticized as politically motivated. An appeals court overturned his conviction in October 2023; the retrial has been delayed by ongoing procedural hurdles.

CPJ has repeatedly urged the Guatemalan government, especially President Bernardo Arévalo, to end Zamora’s prosecution and the harassment of his family and the journalistic community. 

In an interview with CPJ before the overturning of his house arrest, Zamora discussed the personal toll of these charges, his unyielding commitment to press freedom, and the growing threats faced by journalists in Guatemala’s increasingly repressive environment.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is it like to return home after more than 800 days in prison?

Returning home has been an experience full of intense emotions and unexpected moments. When I arrived home, my friends who had supported me throughout the entire process came with me to my house — 10 people who, during my imprisonment, brought me food and visited me once a week. After spending the night with them, I only slept for a few hours. 

When I woke up, I found out that the directors of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), who were gathered in Córdoba, Argentina, wanted to speak with me. And from there, calls and interviews began, one after another.

Diplomats and media from all over the world want to speak with me, and when I go for my daily walk — about 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] a day — people stop to greet me, take photos, and offer their support. 

I appreciate the affection, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed. I wasn’t prepared for so much attention. I’m a shy person; I feel more comfortable writing than speaking in public, and this has been a big change. I also have health issues that I need to attend to, but I am here, trying to adapt.

I’m prepared, knowing they could come to take me back at any moment. And I’m ready here for when they come, to go back again. And I will come out again, and the time will come when they have to let me go free. 

How was your experience in the Mariscal Zavala prison, located at a military base in northern Guatemala City? 

Mariscal Zavala was a shock. They took me [in July 2022], with 18 armed men, and put me in a cell without any explanation.

I spent 14 days without sleep, with purple lights, and unable to communicate with my lawyers. During that time, they put insects in my cell that left wounds on my arms and legs. I also got poisoned by an insecticide that I managed to obtain to control the pests. Despite all this, my conditions improved when the new government changed: I was given better conditions, with light, heating, and more dignity.

The prosecutor’s office says it does not pursue you as a journalist but as a business owner. How do you respond to these statements?

For me, it is hard to conceive that José Rubén Zamora is not a journalist, as I have dedicated my entire life to this profession. They persecuted me and tried to imprison me just for doing my job. And when you add that they were seeking sentences for up to 20 years — the same maximum sentence given for crimes like money laundering or extortion — and they show as evidence my opinion columns, the argument that they are after me as a businessman loses all credibility.

Who is behind this, and why are they pursuing you?

What we’ve lived through in Guatemala has been a sinister metamorphosis of our democracy. Every four years, we elect a president who, rather than being a legitimate leader, is a thief, and he governs with the support of high-ranking military structures, organized crime, and monopolies. They’ve always been bothered by the fact that our newspaper did not align with their interests, that we were independent and denounced corruption and drug trafficking, which are part of that system.

Since 2007, a criminal structure has consolidated its power. It’s a web of interests that has taken over the country and is indifferent to the people’s problems. This is a power alliance that, although it has succeeded in persecuting me, has paid a high price. I think it would have been better for them if I had continued with my newspaper because, in the end, exposing their corruption was less damaging than my imprisonment.

​​This is not the first time you’ve found yourself in a dangerous situation because of your reporting. How has this affected you and your family?

My children never gave up. Despite the damage to their lives, they were always relentless. They worked tirelessly for my liberation and didn’t feel ashamed. The youngest one aimed to be an academic, was building a solid career and had to leave with her mother because they were after him. They even sent people to arrest him, but they were able to leave the country first. Now, he’s without a job, without documents, and his future is uncertain. It has been very tough for them and me, but they keep moving forward with strength.

In 2023, the Court of Appeals annulled your sentence on money laundering charges. What does this mean for you legally and personally?

I still don’t know the final impact. I have requested that we return to the hearing for the presentation of evidence, and I hope to present the testimonies of experts and the person who made the transaction with me. Additionally, I trust that the case regarding the travel receipts and the obstruction charge, which I consider ridiculous, will be dismissed at the intermediate hearing. The case has been intentionally delayed, but sooner or later, it will have to be resolved. If that happens, it will allow my wife to return.

What is the current status of the legal cases you are facing?

The trial that will be repeated is the most important, and I hope to present my evidence at that time. For this, the first hearing for the charges of money laundering and extortion is scheduled for September 25, 2025; there, they will set up a second hearing, likely in 2026. The case has no foundation, as the prosecutor’s office is setting up an extortion case, but they have no people to testify against either for that or for money laundering.

At one point, I was offered the possibility of going home if I accepted the charges and apologized to [former president Alejandro] Giammattei, his associate Miguel Martínez, and the press for my “immoralities.” When I refused, they began to create a second case to persecute my wife and my young son with charges of document falsification. The prosecutor’s office claims the signatures were fake, but those travel documents were legally issued by immigration.

Also, all of this happened in a unilateral hearing where I was not informed of the charges nor allowed to defend myself. This case has no evidence, but what the prosecutor’s office does is that every time there is a hearing, the judge is denounced, and the prosecutors do not show up, which leaves the case stalled.

What has the freezing of your accounts and seizure of all assets meant for you? How did the closure of the newspaper impact you?

It was devastating. Before the pandemic, I had no debts, but now I have obligations with the banks that I can’t even cover since my accounts have been frozen for two years. It’s a constant pressure.

Now elPeriódico is closed. How did you experience that process?

It was a solitary process. I witnessed the collapse of everything without being able to do anything. 

I came to believe that no matter who defended me — whether the best lawyer in the world or someone without experience — the result was going to be the same. That acceptance gave me a deep sense of serenity because I understood that I no longer had control over anything. It was a moment where I decided to just go with the flow, let myself be carried by the current, and I even thought that I might spend the rest of my life in prison. 

If it weren’t for organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who not only helped me get out but also gave me solidarity and support I never expected, I don’t know how I would have been able to continue.

What impact do you think elPeriódico’s closure had on Guatemala and its press?

Guatemala lost one of its most belligerent and irreverent voices. Although the country still has several media outlets, our newspaper stood out for being against abuses of power, state terrorism, impunity, and corruption. We fought for democracy, freedom, and equality of opportunities. We were probably the most uncomfortable and bothersome media for the powerful. 

Despite being small, we knew that we caused significant moral damage to the country’s big thieves, which gave us great satisfaction.

How do you view the current press freedom situation in Guatemala, especially in relation to the journalists who investigate and publish the abuses of power under this government, compared to the previous one?

This president is an exception. He is a decent man, but he lacks control over Congress and the judicial system. The prosecutor’s office is also going after him, and I am sure they will try to remove his immunity to subject him to a legal process.

It’s encouraging to see that many journalists are still working and haven’t given up, even though they face constant risks. The fight for freedom is not philosophical; it is existential. It’s a daily conquest that is achieved by rejecting the abuses of the established power.

Looking ahead, do you see yourself continuing in journalism?

I would like to continue in journalism, but my lawyers have advised me to be cautious. They imprisoned me for two reasons: for traveling too much and because I can influence the media. That’s why, until at least the next two years pass, I must avoid speaking publicly, although it is very difficult for me to stay silent. 

Despite everything, I will always keep fighting. We must maintain our patience, courage, and faith without losing hope. It’s essential to develop the ability to overcome our fears and, whenever possible, break barriers. 

In the end, freedom is the fundamental pillar of democracy.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Dánae Vílchez.

The first poem that popped into my head is by a poet named James Wright, it’s called “A Blessing.” What really moved me was the ending. If I think back on how the poem developed, I probably couldn’t tell you exactly, but I can see the movements. These people [in the poem] are on the road. They are driving, pull over, and on the side of the road they see horses so they get out of the car. The speaker touches the horse’s ear and describes the softness as, “skin over a girl’s wrist.” That always struck me as really unusual, just to think of it in that way, like one’s own wrist, the skin is so delicate.

But right after that moment in the poem, the line is like, “I would break / Into blossom.” What really struck me is that idea that we could be so overwhelmed by joy or we’re so moved by something, the feeling inside us would burst out into something even more beautiful. That’s how I see it in my head, I imagine the blossoming of a rosebud or a flower. I just never heard that feeling described in that way, I thought “Wow, I want to be able to do something like that with words.”

Is the first poem that moved you different from the first poem that made you want to write poetry?

Wright’s poem, I think, moves me for its strangeness of that final move. The poem that made me want to like—or that felt like it gave me permission to speak or write about something that I knew about was probably a poem by a poet named Gary Soto. I was introduced to Gary Soto very early on in my study of writing and poetry. The poem I just shared by James Wright—I’ve never been on a horse, I’m not used to the rural environment being described. I did not connect with the content, but I connected with the description. Gary Soto’s work made me feel like the things that I experienced and the things that I was thinking about were okay to write about. It didn’t have to be about horses, flowers, beauty and, like, nature. It could be about working; it could be about the labor of just living every day.

Gary Soto has a poem called “Mexicans Begin Jogging” and it’s about being at work. He describes, at the very end, there’s a [border patrol] raid and the boss in the poem puts some money into the poet’s hands and says, “Okay now go, run.” All the people that work there were running from the police, presumably because they were undocumented. Gary Soto wrote about his family’s immigrant experience and growing up in that kind of environment of being a day laborer or a field worker. There was this mundane quality to it, just so every day that I thought “Wow, I have a lot of everyday experiences that I’ve never written about because I just thought This isn’t poetry.” I read Gary’s [poetry] about working and being an immigrant and fearing police, you know, like fearing the system that exists. I felt like my world existed in literature and I thought, “Wow if he could do that, I could do that.”

You have written a couple of chapbooks and have done a book length collection of poems before. “Brutal Companions,” is your second collection. How do you think about a body of work or a collection of work versus a stand alone poem?

When I write my poems, I like to handwrite a lot. Eventually I type those up and I have folders of different poems that I’ve written and I organize them chronologically in my cloud. I’ll work on whatever it is I’m writing for a month, and then the new month comes by and I’ll type up new stuff I’ve written and then I’ll go back to the old folders and see what poems are there and which ones I feel like I could keep, which ones need more work and I’ll move those over to the most recent folder. I did that for years and [that’s how “Brutal Companions”] started coming together. I started thinking about the ways in which each individual poem either carried a particular idea, or if there was a particular artifact in the poem–whether it was a color or an image or a symbol. The poems may never have met, they may never have found themselves together in a book; but, what moved me to bring these poems together were those little moments, those little images or ideas that kept popping up.

The poems had their own life, but when I put them side by side I wanted to find a way to make them connect just like people connect. I wanted each poem to have something that the next poem could have, like a bridge. Every poem in [“Brutal Companions”] has something that connects to another one. Typically, that other poem is either next to it or very close to it. I always think of my poems as having their own life and I don’t think about them, necessarily, as being in a book unless I know that I’m going to make a book length project. For “Brutal Companions,” these poems had their own life on their own and it just happened that they spoke to one another and found each other in the same book.

What is something you wish someone told you about the craft of writing poetry before you first started writing poetry?

I wish someone would tell me what I tell my students now and that’s just to write. Write everything and don’t worry about publishing. Don’t worry about revising. Don’t worry about editing yourself. Don’t worry about what it is you’re writing. Just write. It can be about anything, whether it’s something very universal or something very intimate and personal that only you know. The thing that I’ve learned over the years is that the more vulnerable you’re willing to be in your poems, the more impactful it is. It kind of seems a bit contradictory to say my very personal, very specific experience is going to resonate with someone else, but it does and it’s almost like it’s magical. The more specific I think an experience is the more someone seems to connect. I think it’s because it just mirrors our daily life when we see someone going through something, it resonates with us on an emotional level. Obviously, the situation isn’t happening to us, but just the mere observation of it, to just witness another human being going through an experience resonates emotionally with us. So that’s what I would tell myself, don’t stop yourself in any way. Don’t edit yourself in any way while you’re writing. You can worry about that later.

I’ve been particularly drawn to your poem “Shadows” and “Watching Daniel V. Jones.” They are both heavy with grief and violence. How do you try to articulate grief and death in a poem? What goes into building that into a poem?

That poem “Shadows” is about a young girl who gets hit by a car. That actually really happened. I was a child, it happened along the busy street just in front of the house that I lived in. I remember being on the street playing with friends. We hear the screeching [and] a car hits something. My mother helped this young girl out of the street while everyone was just kind of scared and watched. Today, we would say don’t move anyone after an accident. But this was a long time ago, I just remember my mother wanting to console this girl who’d been hit by a car. I remember her looking so pale and so scared. The violence that I was directly witness to had a sense of compassion to it. Not only from my mother but from the people around. Even though this violent incident happened, these people came together to care for this person.

I think about huge tragedies that happen on a global or national scale and how people rally together and console each other. People often describe it as humanity at its best. When I wrote that poem I wrote it from a more complete place of compassion, or a desire for compassion. The poem ends thinking about the death of Rock Hudson. He was so loved for decades, the way people love, like, Taylor Swift. People feel like they genuinely [have] a sense of connection and love for the artist and their work. If they were to die everyone would know about it and everyone would feel a sense of loss. But, when Rock Hudson died, he came out as being gay and having AIDS in the 80s. When that happened so many people turned away. When he died they cremated his body and that was it. That sense of abandonment for someone who was so beloved just seems so inhumane.

The compassion in that poem that I see my mother express towards someone who’s been injured, that’s the compassion that Rock Hudson deserved and a lot of people that died of AIDS in that time deserved. The Daniel V. Jones poem—and there’s another one about R. Budd Dwyer, “Live Broadcast”—those were deaths that I witnessed on television. I didn’t want to necessarily glorify [those] deaths, I wanted to draw attention to their deaths because their deaths were avoidable. Both were suicides broadcasted on live television with no delay. Jones died because his health care was denied. He had HIV and cancer and this was at a time when a “pre-existing condition” wouldn’t get you health coverage. He was just going to die because his health insurance wasn’t going to cover anything. There’s this compassion that I feel about people who are marginalized or disenfranchised. Dwyer [was the treasurer of Pennsylvania] and had been indicted for bribery, so before he was going to get sentenced he was technically still employed. He decided to kill himself so that his wife and children would have his insurance and his pension. He was afraid that his wife and family were going to be destitute. He had always sworn his innocence. It just upsets me that we treat people so poorly when we’re all on the same planet, we’re all in the same boat.

According to the Poetry Foundation, an ekphrastic poem is defined as “a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.” You wrote “East of Wyoming, I Remember Matthew Shepard” as a response to “The Deposition, or the Entombment,” by the painter Raphael completed in the 16th century. You’ve also said that this poem is intended to draw attention to the hate crimes in history that continue to persist in the LGBTQ community. From my understanding, the poem is a twist of what the typical ekphrastic poem does. How did this poem come to be? Why was playing with the ekphrastic poem the path you chose to write this poem?

The painting is really where it began. I learned that the painting was actually commissioned by a mother whose son had been violently killed. She commissioned Raphael to make a painting of her son so she could remember him. I couldn’t help but think about this connection to Matthew Shepard. His mother took this moment of tragedy and created a foundation and became an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. There’s so many parallels. I remember when this incident happened with Matthew Shepard, I was probably a teenager and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Particularly, it happened at a time when I knew I was going to be traveling to Wyoming for the first time ever.

What is something that you wish someone had told you about the business of being a writer when you first started trying to make a living off of your work?

I would have liked a clearer sense of different types of jobs. Money is always important, I would have loved to have learned how to be a better independent freelance person. Throughout my academic career and professional relationships, they all revolve around teaching, readings, appearances, events. But almost none have dealt with, Well, how do you make money if you’re not teaching? How do you deal with taxes? How do you deal with all the legal stuff, all the paperwork? How do you create a network so you’re able to be a better freelance writer? I think that is something that I feel like I’ve had to learn along the way. I wish I had somebody to guide me a little more.

I’m always interested in the logistics of how creatives make money and how they manage to create within our economy. From what I was able to gather from your website and your presence online, you’re a poet with several chapbooks and books under your belt, you’ve done some editing work, you founded and run the non-profit literary arts organization Mercy St, you’re a faculty at Antioch University-Los Angeles, you have a substack with a paid subscriber section, and you’ve won a handful of poetry and literary prizes. You don’t have to share hard numbers if you’re not comfortable with that–though I know many other writers would really appreciate that kind of information–but what is the general breakdown in time spent on and income received for each of those areas of your work?

I don’t make a lot of money, it’s really difficult for me to save. I think, for the last couple of years I’ve owed money to taxes, so there’s that. But, you know, if I didn’t love what I was doing I probably would have stopped doing it a long time ago because I’m always broke. I grew up poor and I feel like I’m a poor adult because the income isn’t steady. I do a lot, but they’re all confined within certain periods of time within the year. So the income isn’t coming in throughout the year. This year, for instance, I stopped teaching in May; so, from May up until July, three months, I had zero income. I had to rely on savings, on credit cards, I had to borrow money. It’s hard. I have student loan debt and being a freelance writer is not going to get me out of it. But that’s okay, because I enjoy what I do and I enjoy the people I meet and I try to lean into what brings me joy. Money is not bringing me any joy because I’m not getting a lot of it.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Daniel Sanchez Torres.

The statement highlights a “deeply troubling trend” of criminalizing and intimidating human rights defenders, including Judge Rodolfo Traheta Córdova, who has been threatened ahead of Friday’s hearing.

Zamora, 67, founder of the now defunct elPeriódico newspaper, was arrested more than 800 days ago and has been waiting for a retrial after his conviction on money laundering charges was overturned in October 2023. Legal experts have said that Zamora’s rights to a fair trial have been violated in what is widely seen as a politically motivated case of arbitrary detention.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“For two years now, José Rubén Zamora has been behind bars in horrific conditions, despite a court order for a retrial,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator. “This disgraceful travesty of justice suggests a breakdown in the country’s rule of law and punitive retaliation against independent journalists. Zamora must be freed immediately.”  

Zamora, 67, remains in pretrial isolation in conditions at Mariscal Zavala military jail in Guatemala City that his lawyers say amount to torture. Their urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment said that this included deprivation of light and water, aggressive and humiliating treatment, unsanitary conditions, and limited access to medical care.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has declared his imprisonment to be in violation of international law, and a February report by TrialWatch concluded that there were breaches of both international and regional fair-trial standards, and that Zamora’s prosecution and conviction are likely retaliation for his journalism.

Zamora, president of the now defunct elPeriódico newspaper, received a six-year prison sentence on money laundering charges in June 2023. An appeals court overturned his conviction in October 2023, but numerous delays have prevented the start of the court-ordered retrial.

On May 15, 2024, a Guatemalan court ordered that the journalist be released to house arrest to await trial. However, authorities kept him in jail, as bail applications remained pending in two other cases. On June 26, an appeals court revoked the lower court’s order for his conditional release.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The appeal, sent to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, says Zamora, age 67, has been deprived of light, water, and sleep, subjected to “sadistic humiliation ceremonies,” unnecessary restraints, and “has been detained in unsanitary conditions that pose a danger to his physical health and well-being.”

“Jose Rubén Zamora’s treatment in prison and pre-trial detention is appalling and constitutes a grave violation of international human rights standards,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s Program Director. “The international community must act urgently to ensure his immediate release.”

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recently declared Zamora’s imprisonment arbitrary and in violation of international law. Likewise, a February report from TrialWatch gave a failing grade to Zamora’s legal proceedings, citing numerous breaches of fair-trial standards.

The UN working group asked Guatemalan authorities to report within six months on Zamora’s release status, any compensation or reparations, the results of the investigation into his rights violations, and whether Guatemala enacted legislative amendments or practical changes to align with international obligations.

Zamora, president of elPeriódico newspaper, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023 on money laundering charges, but an appeals court overturned his conviction in October 2023 and ordered a retrial. However, numerous delays have prolonged the new trial in 2024.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The U.N. Working Group’s acknowledgment of José Rubén Zamora’s arbitrary detention highlights that he has been consistently denied a fair trial, and there is no justification for his ongoing imprisonment,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, from São Paulo. “Zamora’s prosecution was a retaliatory measure for his investigative reporting on government corruption, and he has faced an abusive judicial process driven by individuals also accused of corruption. His imprisonment has been unjust from the start.”

Zamora, the president of elPeriódico newspaper, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in June 2023 on money laundering charges widely condemned as retaliation for his journalism. An appeals court overturned Zamora’s conviction in October 2023 and ordered a retrial, but numerous delays have been imposed. He has been in detention since his July 2022 arrest.

A February report by the global monitoring group TrialWatch assigned a failing grade to Zamora’s legal proceedings, citing numerous breaches of international and regional fair-trial standards.

Monday’s opinion, endorsed by four international experts from the working group, examined the judicial process and the broader context of Zamora’s case, including prosecutors’ public statements, and recommended that Guatemalan authorities immediately release Zamora and compensate him.

The opinion highlighted the “widespread concern within the international community about the criminalization and prosecution of judges, prosecutors, journalists (including Mr. Zamora’s case), and human rights defenders in the context of the fight against corruption in Guatemala.” This included a pattern of investigating and criminalizing Zamora’s lawyers, the opinion said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at the Ninth Criminal Court, in the capital Guatemala City, to consider Zamora’s request to be freed under house arrest.

“We urge Guatemala’s judiciary to grant house arrest to José Rubén Zamora after nearly two years in solitary confinement and to give him the chance to prove his innocence in court,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar in São Paulo. “His ongoing imprisonment amounts to arbitrary detention and demands immediate action. Zamora must have the right to a fair trial and to practice journalism freely.”

On July 29, 2022, police raided the home of Zamora, founder and publisher of the acclaimed investigative daily newspaper elPeriódico, which was forced to close the following year.

On June 14, 2023, Zamora was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in jail, in a ruling widely regarded as a retaliatory measure for his reporting on government corruption. On October 13, an appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial.

Observers have documented severe irregularities in Zamora’s trial, including repeated delays in court proceedings, limited access to evidence, and challenges in maintaining legal representation as his lawyers have been harassed and jailed.

Zamora, 67, remains in pre-trial isolation, which has had detrimental effects on his physical health and well-being. Zamora previously told CPJ that he was subjected to sleep deprivation, which amounts to psychological torture, and that his cell was infested with insects.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a statement issued ahead of the meeting between Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, March 25, the organizations called on the two leaders to undertake tangible measures to promote and safeguard press freedom in Guatemala, to endorse efforts aimed at securing the release of journalist José Rubén Zamora, and to advocate for the protection of journalists who have faced arrests and prosecutions in recent years. 

Here is the text of the joint statement:

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the concerning violations revealed in the fairness report, reiterates the call for authorities to respect Zamora’s right to a fair trial, and urgently calls for international pressure to secure Zamora’s immediate release and hold those responsible for these violations accountable.

“The findings in a report monitoring trial fairness for Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora showed the proceedings were irregular, and he was repeatedly denied his right to defense,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Zamora was prosecuted in retaliation for his investigative reporting on government corruption and has been subjected to an abusive process from actors who themselves are accused of corruption. He shouldn’t have spent a single minute in jail.”

TrialWatch, a flagship initiative of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, monitors the trials of journalists worldwide, grading their fairness and ranking judicial systems on a global justice index. 

The TrialWatch report meticulously outlines severe irregularities in Zamora’s trial, including limited access to evidence for defense lawyers, challenges in maintaining legal representation, and an erroneous reversal of the burden of proof.

“José Ruben Zamora has been in detention for more than 18 months. Every day, it becomes increasingly urgent for Guatemala’s courts to address the fair trial violations identified in this report,” Stephen Townley, legal director of TrialWatch, told CPJ.

Authorities arrested Zamora, the president of elPeriódico newspaper, on July 29, 2022. Following more than a year of legal proceedings, he was convicted of money laundering in June 2023 and sentenced to six years imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 quetzales (approximately US$38,000). An appeals court overturned Zamora’s conviction in October 2023 and ordered a retrial on the money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling charges.

Zamora is also being prosecuted in another case, accused of obstructing justice alongside eight elPeriódico journalists and columnists. CPJ was unable to confirm Zamora’s next court date for this case.

Zamora is expected in court on February 20, to face another obstruction of justice case based on the same complaint that began the money laundering investigation in 2022.

On May 15, 2023, elPeriódico ceased online publication and closed operations after 26 years due to government pressure.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Jose Rubén Zamora has endured detention and punitive legal proceedings simply because he dared to report on corruption,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator. “Guatemalan authorities must ensure that the upcoming trial is conducted impartially and in line with international standards, respecting Zamora’s rights as a defendant.”

Police arrested Zamora, president of the Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, on July 29, 2022, and raided elPeriódico’s offices. Zamora was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison on June 14; on October 13, a court in Guatemala City overturned that conviction and ordered a retrial. Zamora remains in custody.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ulate had taken over the case in August 2022 from two other lawyers, Romeo Montoya García and Mario Castañeda, after the prosecutor in Zamora’s case announced that they were under investigation. After less than three months of representing Zamora, Ulate left Guatemala for a trip to Honduras. The attacks, he said, stopped abruptly.

Looking back, Ulate believes the harassment was part of a clear pattern. Other lawyers who would go on to represent Zamora — there were 10 in total by the time of the journalist’s June conviction on money laundering charges widely considered to be retaliation for his work — were harassed, investigated, or even jailed. 

“We knew that the system was against us, and that everything we, the legal team, did around the case was being closely scrutinized,” Ulate told CPJ. 

Zamora’s experience retaining legal counsel, while extreme, is hardly unique. CPJ has identified lawyers of journalists under threat in Iran, China, Belarus, Turkey, and Egypt, countries that are among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. To be sure, lawyers are not just targeted for representing journalists. “Globally lawyers are increasingly criminalized or disciplined for taking on sensitive cases or speaking publicly on rule of law, human rights, and good governance issues,” said Ginna Anderson, the associate director of the American Bar Association, which monitors global conditions for legal professionals. 

But lawyers and human rights advocates told CPJ that when a lawyer is harassed for representing a journalist, the threats can have chilling effects on the free flow of information. Inevitably, journalists unable to defend themselves against retaliatory charges are more likely to be jailed – leaving citizens less likely to be informed of matters of public interest.  

A barometer of civil liberties 

Attacks on the legal profession – like attacks on journalists – can be a barometer of civil liberties in a country, legal experts told CPJ. Hong Kong, once viewed as a safe harbor for independent journalists, is one such example. The territory has seen multiple members of the press prosecuted under Beijing’s 2020 national security law, including media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, who faces life imprisonment. Lai, a British citizen, is represented by both U.K. and Hong Kong legal teams, which work independently of each other, and both have faced pressure.  

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, the head of the U.K. team, has spoken openly on X, formerly Twitter,  about attacks on Lai’s U.K.-based lawyers, from smears in the Chinese state press to formal statements by Hong Kong authorities. Gallagher has faced death threats, attempts to access her bank and email accounts, and efforts to impersonate her online. “That stuff is quite draining and attritional and designed to eat into your time. They want to make it too much hassle to continue the case,” Gallagher told the Irish Times.

The Hong Kong legal team representing Lai — who has been convicted of fraud and is on trial for foreign collusion — has also appeared to have come under pressure from authorities. After Lai’s U.K. lawyers angered Beijing by discussing Lai’s case with a British minister, the Hong Kong legal team issued a statement distancing itself from the U.K. lawyers.   

Any appearance of working with foreigners could compromise not only Lai’s case but also the standing of his lawyers, said Doreen Weisenhaus, a media law expert at Northwestern University who previously taught at the University of Hong Kong.  

“They have to appreciate the potential harm that they could face moving forward — that they could become targeted — as they try to vigorously represent Jimmy Lai,” she told CPJ. 

CPJ reached out to Robertsons, the Hong Kong legal firm representing Lai, via the firm’s online portal and did not receive a reply.

Moves to isolate and intimidate lawyers working on Lai’s case are part of a larger crackdown over the last decade, including China’s 2015 roundup of 300 lawyers and civil society members. “In many ways, China institutionalized wholesale campaigns of going after journalists, activists, and now lawyers,” said Weisenhaus.  

Defending journalists who cover protests 

In Iran – another country where the judiciary operates largely at the government’s behest –   lawyers representing journalists have been targeted in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. Those protests saw the arrests of thousands of demonstrators and dozens of journalists, including Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who helped break the story of Amini’s hospitalization. The two reporters are accused of spying for the United States; the two remain in custody while awaiting the verdict in their closed-door trials.  

Hamedi and Mohammadi’s lawyer, Mohammed Ali Kamfiroozi, who also represented human rights defenders, received warnings to dissuade him from continuing his work: phone calls from unlisted numbers, threats in the mail, ominous messages to his family, and an official letter from authorities telling him to stop his work, according to CPJ’s sources inside the country. Nevertheless, Kamfiroozi continued his work, publishing regular updates about his clients’ cases on X until he, too, was arrested on December 15, 2022 while inquiring at a courthouse about a client.

Kamfiroozi’s last post on X before his arrest lamented the state of Iran’s judiciary: “This level of disregard for explicit and obvious legal standards is regrettable.” 

Kamfiroozi was released from Fashafouyeh prison after 25 days in detention and has not returned to his work as a lawyer, according to CPJ’s sources inside the country. A new legal team has since taken over the journalists’ cases. Since then, the crackdown on the legal profession has continued, with lawyers being summoned by the judiciary to sign a form stating they will not publicly release information about clients facing national security charges – a common accusation facing journalists. Lawyers who fail to sign can be disbarred and arrested at the discretion of local judges. 

Belarusian lawyers have also been muzzled in the wake of nationwide protests. After widespread demonstrations following the disputed August 2020 presidential election — during which dozens of journalists were arrested — Belarusian lawyers were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements preventing them from speaking publicly about many criminal cases. At least 56 lawyers representing human rights defenders or opposition leaders were disbarred or had their licenses revoked in the two years after the protests, and some were jailed, according to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Initiative, the American Bar Association, and the group Lawyers for Lawyers. 

Belarusian lawyer Siarhej Zikratski, whose clients included the now-shuttered independent news outlet Tut.by, imprisoned Belsat TV journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva, and program director of Press Club Belarus Alla Sharko, was required to undergo a recertification exam which ultimately resulted in authorities revoking his license. He fled the country in May 2021 after he was disbarred and amid ongoing pressure from the government on his colleagues.

In the months after he left, Tut.by was banned in Belarus and Andreyeva, who was nearing the end of a two-year imprisonment, was sentenced to another eight years on retaliatory charges. (Sharko was released in August 2021 after serving eight months.) 

“They took away my beloved profession and my business,” Zikratski wrote in a Facebook post announcing his emigration to Vilnius, Lithuania. “I will continue to do everything I can to change the situation in Belarus. Unfortunately, I cannot do that from Minsk.”

Lawyers in exile can lose their livelihoods 

While exile is not an uncommon choice to escape state harassment, it comes at a cost: lawyers are unable to continue their work in their home countries. 

“The bulk of the harassment against media and human rights lawyers, including criminal defense lawyers who represent journalists and other human rights defenders [occurs] in-country,” said Anderson of the ABA. “Increasingly this is forcing lawyers into exile where they face enormous challenges continuing to practice or participate in media rights advocacy.” 

This was the case for Ethiopian human rights lawyer Tadele Gebremedhin, who faced intense harassment from local authorities after he began defending reporters covering the country’s civil conflict in the Tigray region that began in November 2020.   

Gebremedhin represented freelance journalists Amir Aman Kiyaro and Thomas Engida, Ethio Forum journalists Abebe Bayu and Yayesew Shimelis, Awramba Times managing editor Dawit Kebede, and at least a dozen others, including the staff of the independent now-defunct broadcaster Awlo Media Center, whose charges are related to their reporting on the Tigray region. 

Gebremedhin told CPJ that the harassment started in May 2021 with thinly veiled threats from government officials and anonymous calls telling him not to represent journalists because members of the media are terrorists. He strongly suspected that he was under physical and digital surveillance, and his bank account was blocked.  In November 2021, he was detained by authorities and held for 66 days without charge before being released. 

“That was my payment for working with the journalists,” Gebremedhin said. 

He fled to the United States shortly after his release from police custody, and now works as a researcher at the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center. Just a few of the dozens of reporters he defended are still working in journalism. While they are not behind bars, the damage done to civil society remains, Gebremedhin said. 

Lawyers arrested alongside journalists

Sometimes, lawyers are arrested alongside the journalists they represent. In the runup to Turkey’s May 2023 presidential elections, Turkish lawyer Resul Temur was taken into government custody in Diyarbakır province for his alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkish authorities consider a terrorist organization, along with several Kurdish journalists who were also his clients. 

Authorities took his work phone, computer, and all of his electronic devices, including his 9-year old daughter’s tablet, and all of the paper case files he had in his office, Temur told CPJ. He was released pending investigation, and fears he’ll soon be charged. 

“Lawyers like me who are not deterred by judicial harassment will continue to be the targets of Turkish authorities,” he said.

In Egypt, a country where numerous human rights defenders have been locked up, Mohamed el-Baker, the lawyer of prominent blogger and activist Alaa Abdelfattah, was arrested as he accompanied Abdelfattah to police questioning in September 2019. Authorities charged both with spreading false news and supporting a banned group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

After serving nearly four years of his sentence and amid growing international pressure, el-Baker was granted a presidential pardon in July. However, it remains unclear if the lawyer will be allowed to return to work. Many of his clients, Abdelfattah among them, remain in prison. 

Retaliation leads to censorship

The damage, from Egypt to Turkey to Guatemala and beyond, is great. When lawyers for reporters fear retaliation as much as the journalists do, it creates an environment of censorship that harms citizens’ ability to stay informed about what is happening in their countries.

“When journalists can’t have access to lawyers, they’re kind of left on their own,” Weisenhaus told CPJ. “I think we’ll still see courageous journalists who will continue to write about what they perceive as the wrongs in their country and their society. But those numbers could dwindle if they’re constantly being prosecuted and convicted.”

Additional research contributed by Dánae Vílchez, Özgür Öğret, and CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program staff.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Katherine Jacobsen.

Washington, D.C., July 27, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reiterated its urgent call for the release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora at a press conference on Wednesday marking a year since Zamora’s imprisonment in Guatemala.

“José Rubén Zamora’s imprisonment is a gross miscarriage of justice and a flagrant attack on journalism in Guatemala,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg in a written statement. “This case is a bellwether for democracy in Guatemala; the courts should right this wrong and release Zamora without delay.”

Speaking at the National Press Club, José Carlos Zamora, son of the jailed journalist; Guatemalan journalist in exile Bertha Michelle Mendoza; and CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna—in a discussion moderated by Sara Fischer, senior media reporter at Axios—called on the international community to act with greater urgency over Zamora’s case and the growing challenges faced by journalists in the region.

“The administration of Alejandro Giammattei has held my father hostage for 365 days based on a fabricated case and an absolute violation of due process,” said José Carlos Zamora at the press conference. “Governments realized that assassinating journalists comes at a very high cost, so it was easier to use the legal system to persecute them.”

Concurrent with the press conference, CPJ issued a joint statement, in partnership with over a dozen civil society organizations, urging Guatemala’s Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court to provide due justice in Zamora’s case to ensure his release without further delay.

“In the case of José Rubén Zamora, the situation has gotten worse in the last year until the international community started to put out very clear statements telling the government that this is not acceptable,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “They cannot wait. They cannot consider political calculations.”

Zamora, the founder of the independent investigative newspaper elPeriódico, was arrested on July 29, 2022, at his home in Guatemala City. After being held in pre-trial detention for nearly a year. He was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison on June 14, 2023. On May 15, 2023, elPeriódico, known for its reporting on alleged official corruption, shut down all publication.

Zamora’s arrest has been condemned by international watchdogs and rights organizations as retaliatory. In addition to Zamora, eight elPeriódico journalists and columnists are also under investigation for allegedly obstructing justice due to their coverage of the legal proceedings, and at least 20 journalists in Guatemala have gone into exile after being targeted for their work in recent years.

Zamora’s case comes amid a broader crackdown by the Guatemalan state on prosecutors and anti-corruption investigators. It highlights the continuing deterioration in press freedom in Central America, raising deep concerns about the safety of journalists and erosion of democracy in the region.

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About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Over the past year, the government of President Alejandro Giammattei has engaged in desperate attempts to criminalize journalism in Guatemala. Among the lowest points of this campaign has been the imprisonment and sentencing of prominent investigative journalist José Rubén Zamora. As part of a broad government crackdown to silence and disempower those whose work threatens entrenched corrupt power, Zamora’s lawyers were intimidated, his newspaper was forced to shut down, and at least 20 local journalists have fled the country for their safety.

Meanwhile, the government continues its efforts to undermine the rule of law and public institutions, with its recent blatant attempts to disrupt a democratic electoral process raising international alarm. The deterioration of press freedom in Guatemala was thoroughly documented last May by a joint fact-finding mission that included the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and nine other organizations, and exposed the alarming situation for journalists and the press around the country.

We, the undersigned organizations, urge Guatemala’s Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court to stop and reverse this steady decline in democracy by providing due justice in Zamora’s case so that he may be released without further delay. This act of justice would go a long way toward reestablishing public trust in the rule of law and democracy in Guatemala as the country prepares for its general election on August 20.

On July 29, 2022, Guatemalan police raided the home of Zamora, the founder and publisher of investigative daily newspaper elPeriódico, and the publication’s newsroom. In May 2023, elPeriódico ceased online publication and then fully closed down operations after 26 years, leaving a gaping hole in Guatemala’s investigative media ahead of the country’s election. Held in solitary confinement during pretrial detention, Zamora was forced to engage as many as nine lawyers as he and his family attempted to debunk the charges and achieve justice. On June 14, Zamora was convicted of money laundering, acquitted on blackmail and influence peddling charges, and was sentenced to a six-year prison term and a fine. International watchdogs and rights organizations have widely criticized the charges against him as retaliatory.

As part of their observation of Zamora’s trial, the American Bar Association and the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Trialwatch initiative have documented a detailed timeline of irregularities in the legal process, noting that “Zamora has been represented by 9 different lawyers throughout proceedings, and many did not seem to have access to the casefile.”

Zamora founded his newspaper in 1996 to serve as a vehicle for public accountability. It evolved into a working school for investigative journalists who honed their skills exposing corruption in Guatemala, a country with a record of media repression and gross human rights violations.

The campaign against elPeriódico and its staff is part of a broader backlash targeting prosecutors, journalists, and others involved with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission active in the country until 2019. Over the last four years, many of the prosecutors and lawyers involved with the CICIG have been forced to flee Guatemala. With Zamora’s imprisonment, Giammattei’s administration turned its attention to journalists at other outlets, particularly investigative reporters.  

In May this year, international organizations conducted a mission to monitor freedom of expression and press freedom in Guatemala ahead of the election. The mission reported a troubling atmosphere of intimidation, fear, and self-censorship among journalists, leading to many refraining from putting their names on their work for fear of reprisals. The journalists and communicators interviewed said that the intimidation strategy against press freedom has become a systemic issue, involving state representatives, the private business sector, and organized crime.

In a March 2020 report, as Giammattei was about to take power, CPJ outlined concerns for press freedom in Guatemala, including the use of criminal proceedings to retaliate against journalists; fears that journalists who covered the CICIG and anti-corruption efforts might be targets for aggrieved politicians and other powerful individuals; and concerns that rural and indigenous journalists faced discrimination and threats from criminal groups and corrupt officials. Only two years later, Giammattei’s administration delivered a critical blow to the press by putting Zamora behind bars.

Elected officials have long sought to silence Zamora and his news outlet. In 2013 and 2014, then-President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti Elias filed criminal complaints against Zamora in response to his critical reporting and commentary.

Past attacks on Zamora also include:

• August 2008: Zamora was abducted, drugged, and beaten.
• June 24, 2003: Zamora and his family were attacked and intimidated by an armed group at their home in Guatemala City.
• May 15, 1996: Two grenades were tossed from a vehicle when Zamora was dining in a Guatemala City restaurant, damaging his car.

The attacks on Zamora serve as a stark testament to the erosion of freedom of speech and the criminalization of journalism in Guatemala. Officials must end this malicious retaliation against him and respect the rule of law. It is time for Zamora to be released.

Signed,

Article 19 Oficina para México y Centroamérica
Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (Abraji)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
IFEX-ALC
Free Press Unlimited
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP)
Fundamedios
Instituto Cubano por la Libertad de Expresión y Prensa (ICLEP)
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad IPYS, Perú
Fundación por la Libertad de Expresión y Democracia (FLED)
Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF)
Protection International
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Voces del Sur

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Zamora, founder of the independent investigative newspaper elPeriódico, was arrested on July 29, 2022, at his home in Guatemala City. He was held in pre-trial detention for nearly a year before being convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison on June 14, 2023. Zamora’s lawyers, colleagues, and family have also faced ongoing intimidation and harassment. On May 15, 2023, elPeriódico, known for its reporting on alleged official corruption, shut down all publication. 

Zamora’s arrest has been widely criticized by international watchdogs and rights organizations as retaliatory, raising deep concerns about press freedom, the safety of journalists, and the erosion of democracy in the country and the region. His case is an egregious example of how officials have abused Guatemalan laws to censor the press and undermine public accountability.

Speakers will provide an update on Zamora’s wellbeing, his case, and its impact on his family. The press conference will also address the growing challenges faced by journalists in Guatemala in recent years, ongoing advocacy efforts, and the need for governments to support press freedom as an essential pillar of democracy.

WHO:

●                 José Carlos Zamora, son of José Rubén Zamora

●                 Bertha Michelle Mendoza, Guatemalan journalist in exile

●                 Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director, CPJ

●                 Moderated by: Sara Fischer, senior media reporter, Axios

WHAT:           Press conference ahead of one-year anniversary of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora’s imprisonment

WHEN:           July 26, 2023, 9:30 a.m. EDT

WHERE:         National Press Club (Fourth Estate Room), 529 14^th St NW, Washington, D.C.

RSVP:             Please register here by July 24 to attend.

To arrange an interview, contact press@cpj.org.

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About the Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Media contact: press@cpj.org

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

Prominent Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison in his sentencing hearing Wednesday for what press freedom and human rights groups say are inflated charges of money laundering. Zamora is the founder and president of the investigative newspaper El Periódico and has long reported on Guatemalan government corruption. El Periódico was forced to shut down last month after months of intensifying harassment and persecution from President Alejandro Giammattei’s right-wing government. The government has held Zamora “as a hostage” for nearly a year as part of its wider crackdown on the press, says his son José Carlos Zamora, a journalist based in Miami who is advocating for his father’s release.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“The decision of the elPeriódico newspaper to cease publication is the result of the President Alejandro Giammattei administration’s judicial and financial harassment of the outlet’s founder, José Rubén Zamora, and its journalists for their critical reporting on corruption,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “The international community should send a clear message ahead of Guatemala’s upcoming presidential elections by demanding that Giammattei immediately release Zamora.”  

Zamora, who has been in pre-trial detention since July 29, 2022, went to trial on May 2, 2023, on money laundering charges. Zamora and eight elPeriódico journalists and columnists are also under investigation for obstruction of justice based on their coverage of the legal proceedings. In April, a judge ordered the arrest of three lawyers defending Zamora.   

ElPeriódico ended its print edition due to “political and economic pressure” in December 2022, but had continued to publish on its website.

“The closure of elPeriódico after 26 years of doing great journalism is devastating. The simple fact of doing journalism–investigating and denouncing corruption–must not be criminalized,” José Zamora, son of José Rubén Zamora, told CPJ by email. “One hundred [and] sixty-six exceptional professionals have lost their jobs, and 17 million citizens have lost an important source of information to them.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Bring it back."

That's what Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)—who is running to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in 2024—said Friday in response to new research highlighting some benefits of the expanded child tax credit (CTC) of 2021.

Krista Ruffini, an economist and assistant professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, shared a working paper about how Covid-19 pandemic stimulus and expanded CTC payments impacted infant health on the open access research platform SSRN.

After three rounds of stimulus checks throughout the first year of the pandemic, households with children received $250-$300 per child each month for the last six months of 2021 through the CTC expansion included in the American Rescue Plan relief package.

Ruffini found that "increased resources during pregnancy improve child well-being, and that unconditional cash transfers have large effects on infant health." Specifically, she connected an additional $1,000 with "increasing Apgar scores 0.02 points, reducing very low birth weight by at least 0.6 percentage points, and reducing preterm births by approximately 3 percentage points."

\u201cPayments were super important for infant health and broad across the popn: less low birthweight, fewer pre-term births, higher Apgar scores 2/4\u201d

— Krista Ruffini (@Krista Ruffini) 1681498682

"Payment timing is also important: Resources received during the final months of a pregnancy yield a greater health benefit than those received earlier on," the economist explained. "Patterns in prenatal care and maternal health suggest that these benefits to infants accrue through both investments in children as well as improvements in the prenatal environment."

"The improvements in infant health documented in this paper are consistent with previous work showing that families used the payments on essential goods and services and to improve their financial position. It builds on this literature by showing that these improvements in material hardship benefited the next generation in ways that are expected to yield long-term benefits," she wrote. "These findings are particularly relevant as dozens of U.S. cities are piloting guaranteed income programs and policymakers contemplate a permanent expansion of the federal child tax credit."

\u201cWhy? Families spent $ on essentials and paid down debt, + less maternal smoking, more prenatal care. Altogether, consistent w large body of work showing importance of resources on infant & child health. 4/4\u201d

— Krista Ruffini (@Krista Ruffini) 1681498682

Despite the well-documented benefits of the boosted CTC, including a dramatic drop in child poverty, congressional Democrats' efforts to lengthen the period of the program or even make it permanent have been unsuccessful.

After long joining with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to thwart various priorities of Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden, Sinema formally ditched the party in December and became an Independent. Although Sinema has not officially announced whether she will seek reelection next year, Gallego's campaign has gained national attention since launching in late January.

Throughout his campaign, Gallego has shared his experience growing up poor, as one of four children being raised by a single mother, and accused Sinema of fighting "for the interests of Big Pharma and Wall Street at our expense."

As Gallego's campaign said Friday:

Sen. Sinema helped block the expanded child tax credit from being included in the Inflation Reduction Act—essentially giving a thumbs up to 3.7 million children living in poverty. While, simultaneously, she fought to protect the carried interest tax loophole—a favorite of her hedge fund donors.

Growing up as the child of a poor, single mother, Ruben understands what the child tax credit means for millions of hard-working Americans and their children. That is why he has always been and remains a firm and vocal supporter of the child tax credit—because working families deserve to make ends meet and no child should ever have to worry about where their next meal will come from. In the Senate, Ruben will always fight for working people—because that's who he is and where he comes from.

While Sinema weighs whether to run for Senate again, her campaign filings for the first quarter of this year revealed Friday that she only raised $2.1 million, compared with Gallego's $3.7 million since launching his campaign.

Sinema "brought in funds from several prominent Republican donors and Wall Street sources. She raised more than $280,000 from employees of Blackstone, the private investment company, and $196,000 from employees of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm," Politico reported. "Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also gave her campaign the maximum $3,300, while the No Labels Problem Solvers PAC gave $10,000."

\u201cThe top 1, 2, and 3 private equity firms in the world also happen to be Kyrsten Sinema's three largest contributors. What a coincidence! \n\nBlackstone: $286,850 \nThe Carlyle Group: $196,400\nKKR: $53,700 \n\nAnd that's just for the first quarter of the year.\u201d

— Replace Sinema (@Replace Sinema) 1681517340

Gallego's campaign highlighted that less than $6,000 of Sinema's funds for January through March came from small-dollar donors, while 98% of those who have given to his campaign are small-dollar donors.

"I'm proud to be running a people-powered campaign where 98% of my donors are small-dollar donors who chipped in less than $100," Gallego said. " It's unfortunate that Sinema has pursued a different strategy: catering to a small group of rich donors."

"It doesn't seem to be getting her very far," he added. "At the end of the day: this seat is not going to be bought by a few rich guys on Wall Street. It's going to be won with the support of regular, everyday Arizonans—and I'm proud to have them in my corner."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

Democratic Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego on Tuesday accused Sen. Kyrsten Sinema—who he hopes to oust from the U.S. Senate next year—of playing a major role in the Silicon Valley Bank collapse by taking campaign contributions from lobbyists that represented the bank and then voting to deregulate it.

Politicoreports that Sinema (I-Ariz.) was one of numerous members of Congress to take campaign donations from Franklin Square Group, which once counted Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) among its clients. In 2018, Sinema—then a Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives—received more than $8,000 from the lobbyists before she voted for Sen. Mike Crapo's (R-Idaho) Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.

"Before voting to loosen bank safeguards, Sinema received over $100,000 from big banks. And among those who bought Sinema's vote were three Silicon Valley Bank lobbyists that maxed out," Ruben said in a campaign email. "Simply put, she voted to give the banks free rein. And I did not."

"The SVB collapse is a direct result of Kyrsten Sinema's choice to side with big banks over everyday Arizonans."

Dubbed the Bank Lobbyist Act by critics, the law rolled back the Dodd-Frank Act—which was passed in the wake of the 2007-08 global financial meltdown—and exempted banks with between $50 billion and $250 billion in assets from rigorous stress-testing and capital requirements. Both SVB and Signature Bank, which are both now under federal government control, qualified for the "medium-sized bank" exemption.

Sinema argued at the time that "these important reforms will help protect the financial security of Arizonans young and old as they plan for homeownership, a college education, or a stable retirement."

Gallego asked Monday: "What's the difference between Sen. Sinema and me? When bank lobbyists asked me to weaken bank regulations, I said no. When they asked Sen. Sinema, she asked how much—and voted yes. Now we are all going to pay for her mistake."

On Twitter Tuesday, Gallego wrote that "the SVB collapse is a direct result of Kyrsten Sinema's choice to side with big banks over everyday Arizonans."

"FEC records and public lobbying reports show that three SVB lobbyists maxed out donations to Sinema ahead of 2018 Dodd-Frank rollback which led to the collapse," Gallego continued, referring to the Federal Election Commission. "Sinema is in the pocket of Wall Street and her vote put hardworking Arizonans, their families, and their small business, at risk of another 2008-like meltdown."

"Arizonans deserve a leader in the Senate who will fight for them, not Wall Street," he added. "Sinema is not that person and Arizonans know it."

Sinema was far from alone in taking campaign cash from SVB's lobbyists and political action committee.

As Politico's Hailey Fuchs, Jessica Piper, and Holly Otterbein noted:

Between 2017 and 2022, Silicon Valley Bank's PAC gave more than $50,000 to the campaigns of nearly two dozen senators and representatives, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The donations largely went to members—Republicans and Democrats—who served on relevant committees including the House Financial Services Committee or Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) received the most from the PAC, each bringing in $7,500 over the six-year period.

SVB CEO Greg Becker "also made maximum individual donations to the campaigns of Warner and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) during the 2022 cycle," the reporters added, citing FEC records.

Sinema—who has been accused of "cartoonish-level corruption" for coziness with corporations and lobbyists—was excoriated in a Tuesday Daily Beast article by Michael Daly, who called the senator "a wolf for Wall Street."

Daly took aim at Sinema's Sunday statement asserting that "the federal government must now ensure those responsible [for the SVB collapse] are held accountable, while maintaining stability for all Americans who rely on our banking system."

"Sinema need only step in front of a mirror to find a prime suspect," wrote Daly. "Whether she's calling herself a Democrat or an independent, her voting record is the same. And it marks her a shill for the banking industry."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday weighed in on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, taking to The New York Times' opinion section to offer her view on how the financial institution failed, while also looking ahead and detailing "what Washington must do—quickly—to prevent the next crisis."

Namely, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote, the federal government must ensure the bank's risky behavior isn't rewarded with bonuses and generous compensation for executives, and must determine whether insider trading tipped off Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) executives regarding their firm's impending failure last Friday.

Joining other progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in noting that Republican lawmakers' push to roll back oversight and liquidity requirements allowed SVB to "load up on risk" and made it more vulnerable to failure, Warren pointed to the conduct of bank executives just before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was forced to save the institution.

Just hours before the California-based firm collapsed on Friday, Warren wrote, "SVB executives were busy paying out congratulatory bonuses," estimated to be as high as $140,000 for managing directors, according toCNBC.

"If we are to deter this kind of risky behavior from happening again, it's critical that those responsible not be rewarded."

The bonuses were for work performed in 2022, when SVB was largely serving a small, wealthy subset of the U.S. population—"a concentrated group of tech companies with big deposits, driving an abnormally large ratio of uninsured deposits," Warren wrote.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings also show that SVB CEO Greg Becker sold $2.27 million in bank stocks in late February and $1.1 million in stocks in January.

The bank took a risk by heavily concentrating its assets in a single industry, and then by investing a large share of the funds into long-term Treasury bonds "that promised good returns when interest rates were low," wrote Reich at Substack on Monday. When interest rates rose, the value of the bonds fell and "the gusher of venture capital funding to startup and tech companies slowed, because venture funds had to pay more to borrow money."

"As a result, these startup and tech companies had to withdraw more of their money from the bank to meet their payrolls and other expenses," Reich continued. "But the bank didn't have enough money on hand."

The business model used by SVB executives including Becker "was great for SVB's short-term profits, which shot up by nearly 40% over the last three years," wrote Warren. But with regulators forced to take over SVB and then on Sunday to dissolve Signature Bank—a New York-based institution also heavily tied to tech—to mitigate the damage done, she added, "now we know its cost."

As SVB executives were celebrating their bonuses Friday, "businesses and nonprofits with accounts at the bank [were left] alarmed that they wouldn't be able to pay their bills and employees," the senator wrote.

"SVB and Signature shareholders will be wiped out, but their executives must also be held accountable," she added. "Mr. Becker of SVB took home $9.9 million in compensation last year, including a $1.5 million bonus for boosting bank profitability—and its riskiness. Joseph DePaolo of Signature got $8.6 million. We should claw all of that back, along with bonuses for other executives at these banks. Where needed, Congress should empower regulators to recover pay and bonuses."

Morris Pearl, former BlackRock managing director and chair of the economic justice group Patriotic Millionaires, added that Becker and other executives should not be rewarded for failing "to foresee the consequences of the current market and the Federal Reserve interest rate hikes" as they "put tens of billions of dollars of risk on the shoulders of businesses and workers."

"SVB's incompetence in running their financial institution has led to a crisis impacting regular Americans," said Pearl. "Bankers always say that regulators get in the way of doing their jobs and making profits, but this is what happens when Congress takes them at their word and loosens regulations. Bank managers have an inherent conflict of interest regarding government oversight; they get the credit if things go well, and the FDIC takes the hit if things go south."

In addition to clawing back bonuses and exorbitant executive pay to ensure there are material consequences for SVB's mismanagement, Warren wrote at the Times, prosecutors should also "investigate whether any executives engaged in insider trading or broke other civil or criminal laws."

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who is running for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (I-Ariz.) Senate seat, echoed Warren's call.

"If we are to deter this kind of risky behavior from happening again," said Warren, "it's critical that those responsible not be rewarded."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Julia Conley.

Judge Jimi Bremer, acting on a request by prosecutor Cinthya Monterroso of the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office, ordered an investigation Tuesday into journalists and columnists of elPeriódico newspaper as part of a new criminal case against Zamora, according to multiple news reports.

“Guatemalan authorities should immediately stop any investigation into the columnists and employees of elPeriódico and any further prosecution of its president, José Ruben Zamora,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Authorities’ targeting of the publication’s staff after Zamora’s arrest on dubious financial charges is a clear attempt by the prosecutors to intimidate and harass an investigative outlet and journalists working tirelessly to expose corruption.”

During Tuesday’s initial hearing bringing new charges against Zamora of “conspiracy to obstruct justice,” Monterroso said those she wanted investigated — Zamora’s colleagues Édgar Gutiérrez, Gersón Ortiz, Julia Corado, Gonzalo Marroquín Godoy, Christian Velix, Alexander Valdez, Ronny Ríos, and Denis Aguilar — had obstructed justice by criticizing the prosecutor’s office for its actions against Zamora and not telling the truth about the charges against him.

Zamora has been imprisoned since July 29, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

Just over 24 hours after announcing his 2024 U.S. Senate candidacy for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's seat in Arizona, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego set multiple fundraising records and made clear the vast difference between his approach to public service and that of his opponent.

Gallego announced he has already raised more than $1 million, bringing in more than 27,000 donations since launching his campaign Monday morning.

The congressman broke Sen. Mark Kelly's (D-Ariz.) previous 24-hour fundraising record in the state—doing so in just eight hours—and distinguished his relationship with small donors from Sinema's (I-Ariz.) reliance on Wall Street and corporate PACs for contributions.

The individual donations Gallego has already received in just one day surpass the amount that "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has received in the last three years," said his campaign.

The early fundraising haul "speaks to the excitement and grassroots support for his candidacy and the momentum behind the campaign to return Sen. Sinema's seat back to the hands of everyday Arizonans," the campaign added.

"I am extremely grateful for the support our campaign has received since entering this race," said Gallego. "We're running a grassroots campaign to take back this seat for hardworking Arizonans, and this fundraising record proves that. While Sen. Sinema collects huge checks from powerful special interests, this campaign is going to be funded by the people, and that's the way it should be."

As the donations poured in, Gallego appeared on MSNBC's "The Last Word" to say he supports reforming the legislative filibuster, which he called a "tool of obstruction" that Sinema supports and has called an "important guardrail for the institution."

He also announced a number of in-person events he plans to hold in the coming weeks across the state, noting that Sinema has been criticized for not holding public town halls with her constituents and instead attending high-dollar fundraisers.

"Arizona: You've been neglected by Washington for far too long," said Gallego, announcing events in Tucson, Navajo Nation, Phoenix, and other cities. "I'm sorry that your senator, Kyrsten Sinema, has let you down. But I'm going to change that."

Last October, the progressive think tank Data for Progress released polling that showed in a hypothetical matchup, Gallego had the support of 62% of Arizona voters, compared to 23% who said they would back Sinema over him.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Julia Conley.

On Tuesday, January 3, agents with the National Security Service detained six journalists with the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, according to multiple media reports and three people familiar with the arrests who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.

The journalists are under investigation for allegedly leaking a video clip widely circulated on social media in December, which appeared to show the country’s president urinating on himself, those reports said. SSBC did not air that footage, an official from the broadcaster told the independent outlet Radio Tamazuj.

“Authorities’ arrests of six employees of the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation matches a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavorable,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should unconditionally release these six SSBC employees and ensure that they can work without further intimidation or threat of arrest.”

Those detained are control room director Joval Tombe, camera operator and technician Victor Lado, camera operators Joseph Oliver and Jacob Benjamin, camera operator and technician Mustafa Osman, and control room technician Cherbek Ruben, according to the media reports and the people who spoke to CPJ.

As of Friday evening, the six remained in detention at the National Security Service headquarters, known as Blue House, according to those sources and a statement by the Union of Journalists of South Sudan.

CPJ called and texted South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei for comment on Friday evening, but did not immediately receive any replies. He told the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America that people should wait to learn why the journalists were detained.

When CPJ called Elijah Alier, managing director of South Sudan’s Media Authority, a statutory regulator, he declined to comment, saying he was out of office.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

December 20, 2022

Sent via email

Dear President Giammattei,

We are writing to express our deep concern over—and opposition to—the continued detention of and criminal charges against international award-winning journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, whose trial proceedings began on December 8. 

Zamora, the founder and director of multiple outlets including the daily newspaper, elPeriódico, has been recognized with Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the King of Spain International Journalism Award, and the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award, among other prizes, for his decades of exceptional journalism.

We have followed the case against Zamora and elPeriódico with great concern since July, when police detained him on charges of blackmail, influence peddling, and money laundering for receiving $38,000 intended for elPeriódico. To date, prosecutors have failed to present any compelling evidence that Zamora committed any illegal act in accepting money donated to the newspaper; the main witness against Zamora and other elPeriódico employees charged in the case is a former banker himself accused of corruption. Nor have we seen any legitimate arguments at the court or appellate level for keeping Zamora behind bars for the more than four months he has already awaited trial. 

Zamora’s family has reported that the 66-year-old journalist is being kept in virtual solitary confinement, with limited access to water and food, and that he has faced arbitrary changes to visiting hours, according to filings by his attorneys with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. His pre-trial detention violates Article 7 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which Guatemala has ratified. Even if, as prosecutors have stated in court, authorities are concerned that Zamora may try to influence the testimony of his employees, keeping him in pre-trial detention is hardly the only—though it is certainly the most overtly punitive—way to prevent such communication that does not involve violating Zamora’s rights or risking his health and safety.

Zamora has faced multiple threats and serious attacks on his life because of his reporting. As you are well aware, in 2003, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted Zamora precautionary measures to protect him from persecution for his work, following a home invasion and violent attacks against his family by individuals who identified themselves at the time as agents of the Guatemalan National Civil Police and Guatemala’s Public Ministry. 

We also are concerned about the timeline of events in Zamora’s case, that elPeriódico was set to publish articles alleging government corruption in the days immediately preceding the charges against him, and that because of his detention and the case against him and other newspaper employees, elPeriódico recently was forced to cease print publication. 

We call on your administration to immediately and unconditionally release Zamora, drop the unwarranted and undue criminal charges against him and other members of elPeriódico, and ensure the press is allowed to cover his trial proceedings free of any censorship or interference. Finally, we urge you to allow investigative journalists to work freely and safely to open a new chapter in Guatemalan history, one that defines the country as a leader in protecting freedom of expression in the Americas.

Sincerely,

Aaron Glantz, executive-in-residence, Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Adamy Gianinni dos Santos
Alex Goldmark, JSK journalism fellow
Alina Fichter, DW, Germany
Amie Ferris-Rotman, New Lines Magazine
Ana Maria Carrano, El Detector, Univision
András Kepes
Andrea Elliott, journalist
Ann Hayward, independent
Ann Marie Lipinski, Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Anne Marie Sorensen, Politiken, Denmark
Anuradha Bhasin, Kashmir Times
Barbara Maseda, Proyecto Inventario
Berifi Apenteng, Ghana Journalists Association
Beth Duff-Brown, journalist
Betsy O’Donovan, assistant professor, Department of Journalism, Western Washington University
Bob Thompson, retired, The Washington Post
Bruce Benson, alumnus, JSK Journalism Fellowship
Bryan Pollard, The Associated Press
Burt Herman
Camila Segura, directora editorial, Radio Ambulante
Carlos Dada, journalist
Carlos F. Chamorro, journalist, director, Confidencial, Nicaragua
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, Committee to Protect Journalists
Carlos Puig, Class of 1998, Nieman fellow
Carolina Guerrero, El hilo, Radio Ambulante
Cheryl Devall, KRVS, Lafayette, Louisiana
Chicas Poderosas
Christianne Gonzalez, Brasil NewsCom
Christy George, freelance public radio editor
Cinar Oskay, JSK journalism fellow
Cíntia de Lima
Cristina Tardáguila, Agência Lupa (Brasil)
Cristina Zahar, Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (Abraji)
Dagmar Thiel, Fundamedios
Daniela Pinheiro
David Dow, Society of Professional Journalists
David Trujillo, Radio Ambulante
Dawn Garcia, director, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University
Djordje Padejski, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University
Dr. Luisa Ortiz Pérez, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Eduardo Goulart, OCCRP
Ergun Babahan, retired
Eric Ortiz
Eric Pryne, retired, The Seattle Times
Eric V Tait Jr., EVT Educational Productions
Eric Westervelt, NPR
Erich Vogt, University of Toronto
Ewa Zadrzynska, freelance writer
Fátima Cabañas, Cultura CoOp México
Federica Bianchi, L’Espresso
Florencia Coelho, La Nación, Argentina
Gabriel Sama
Gail Ablow, Class of 2004, JSK journalism fellow; producer, Anna Deavere Smith Projects
Geoff McGhee, independent
Guilherme Amado, Abraji
Guillermo López Portillo, Nmas, Televisa
Hansheng Chen, freelancer
Howard Berkes, retired correspondent, NPR Investigations Unit
Ian Stewart, International Studies Institute, University of New Mexico
Ivan Martínez-Vargas, reporter
Izabela Moi, Agência Mural de Jornalismo das Periferias
Jake Nicol, JSK journalism fellow
Janet Rae-Dupree, freelancer
Janine Zacharia, Stanford University
Jenifer McKim, GBH News, Boston
Jeremy Adam Smith, University of California, Berkeley
Jim Colgan, former JSK journalism fellow
Joan Laatz Jewett, The Oregonian
Joe Copeland, InvestigateWest
Jorge Imbaquingo, El Comercio, Ecuador
Joseph Neff, The Marshall Project
Joseph Poliszuk
Joshua Benton, Harvard University
Juan Ortiz, Giro Latino
Juan Pablo Meneses, Universidad Portátil
Judith Torrea, independent border reporter, Ciudad Juárez
Julia Michaels, Riorealblog
Katy Newton
Kennedy Jawoko, former JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Kirit Radia, ABC News
Krista Almanzan
Laura Wides-Muñoz, author and journalist; Class of 2013, Nieman fellow
Louis Freedberg, California Media Collaborative
Luiza Duarte, independent journalist
Luz María Helguero, Democracia Desarrollo y Prensa Regional
Maggie Jones, freelancer
Marcelo Träsel, Abraji
Márcia Bechara
Margarita Assenova, The Jamestown Foundation
María Lilly Delgado, periodista independiente, Nicaragua
Maritza L. Felix, Conecta Arizona
Marta Alencar, Coar
Mary Aviles, JSK journalism fellow
Matt Kiefer, Chicago Public Media
Maya Vidon-White, freelance journalist
Melissa Chan, independent journalist
Michael V. Marcotte, University of New Mexico
Natalia Mazotte, Insper University
Natalie Pawelski
Nathalie Alvaray
New Mexico Local News Fund
Nuno Vargas
Oleksandr Akymenko, Class of 2016, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Owais Aslam Ali, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)
Pam Maples, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University
Patricia Mercado Sánchez, Conexión Migrante
Paulette Brown-Hinds, publisher, Black Voice News
Paulynn Sicam, Women Writers in Media Now, Philippines
Peter H. Lewis, Asheville Watchdog
Peter Y. Sussman, journalist and author
Phillip Martin, GBH News Boston
Raquel Salomão Utsch de Carvalho
Rebecca Aguilar, Latinas in Journalism
Reinaldo Chaves
Relly Davidsoh, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University
Rick Young
Rita Neubauer
Roman Anin, editor-in-chief, IStories, Russia
Ronnie Hess
Rosental Calmon Alves, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Ryan Nakashima, JSK journalism fellow
Seema Yasmin
Sérgio Spagnuolo, Núcleo Jornalismo, Brasil
Sexa Muradyan Public Journalism Club
Shahrazad Encinias, freelance journalist
Sharon Salyer, journalist
Silvia Lisboa, Matinal, Brasil
Steve Harris, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Stuart Gannes, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Subbu Vincent, Class of 2016, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Takeshi Kawasaki, independent journalist, Japan
Teresa Mioli, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Tiago Rogero, Abraji
Tim Regan-Porter, Colorado Press Association
Tom Gibboney, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University
Vicki Monks, freelance Journalist
Vinnee Tong, JSK journalism fellow, Stanford University

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

“The painful decision by elPeriódico to halt print publication, leaving the future of the outlet’s reporting and its staff in limbo, is an alarming sign of just how sharply conditions for the press have declined in Guatemala,” said CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, Natalie Southwick. “Guatemalan officials, beginning with President Alejandro Giammattei, must drop the criminal charges against elPeriódico’s staff, put an immediate end to their efforts to stifle investigative journalism, and ensure that independent outlets, including elPeriodico, can continue reporting safely and freely.”

In its statement, the outlet said that it was “forced to abandon our print format” after “120 days of political and economic pressure,” and would continue publishing online.

ElPeriódico’s co-founder and president, José Rúben Zamora, has been in pretrial detention since he was arrested at his home on July 29, as CPJ reported at the time. He faces charges of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling and is scheduled to appear in court on December 8. On August 19, Guatemalan police arrested the outlet’s financial manager, Flora Silva, after a raid on her home. Silva also remains in pretrial detention.

Zamora, his family, and colleagues have claimed that the case is retaliation for elPeriódico’s reporting on alleged corruption involving Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Zamora, who founded elPeriódico in 1996 and still serves as president of the newspaper, was arrested on July 29. He remains in pre-trial detention in the Mariscal Zavala prison in Guatemala City, as prosecutors conduct a criminal investigation on charges of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling.

Zamora, his family, and his colleagues have claimed that the case is retaliation for elPeriódico’s reporting on alleged corruption involving Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

Zamora’s son, José Zamora, who is also a journalist and currently works at Exile Content Studio, a Spanish-language entertainment and media firm, in Miami, spoke to CPJ in a video interview about his father’s case and the current state of press freedom and democracy in Guatemala.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In response to CPJ’s request for comment, Juan Luis Pantaleon, a spokesperson for the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office, said in an email that the case against Zamora is “not about any political persecution or any attack” on freedom of expression. CPJ emailed the office of the executive secretary of the presidency but did not receive a reply.

This is not the first time your father has faced harassment from Guatemalan officials.

José Zamora: My father has a career of more than 30 years in journalism, and he was the first journalist to start doing investigative journalism, with his team, in Guatemala. This has led to a series of attacks and harassment and persecution over the years: defamation campaigns, fiscal terrorism, and many others.

For example, they said the newspaper hasn’t been paying taxes for years. They came to audit the newspaper but did not find anything.

Then there were the lawsuits. At one point, there were 195 spurious lawsuits against my father and the outlet, some of them even misusing important laws, like the law against femicide, which is intended to protect women who face abuse from their partners. Several officials sued my father using this law, which is a total aberration.

And then you have the commercial boycott. The government and the president have threatened influential business people and basically prohibited them from advertising in the newspaper.

My father has also been subjected to threats, kidnappings, and bombings. In 2003, there was a kidnapping. They entered my parent’s house — my siblings and I still lived with my parents at the time — and held us hostage for about three hours.

In 2008, they tried again to kill my dad. They kidnapped him coming out of a restaurant, took him away, beat him, injected him with something to kill him, and then left him. Luckily that place was so cold that he got hypothermia. And hypothermia was, in the end, what saved him. Firefighters brought him in, thinking he was a corpse, and when they began to prepare for the autopsy, they realized that he had vital signs [and treated him].

But this imprisonment is totally new. They had been trying to do this for the last year, but it did not happen until now. Several times, different sources warned us that they were fabricating cases against him.

How is your father?

He is in an isolated cell, and in general, he is in good health and in good spirits. He wants to fight and continue doing journalism even while there. At some point, he did have some health problems — his cell was filled with bedbugs, which bit him and gave him an allergic reaction. But now he is generally in good health and is much better.

What was the newspaper publishing before your father was arrested?

President Giammattei has been in power for 130 weeks, more or less, and elPeriódico has published 130 investigations. So there has not been a week without reporting on some act of corruption in his administration.

In the country in general, Giammattei has led a systematic attack on democracy and has persecuted anyone who is considered a critic. The most recent of these systematic attacks on democracy is this persecution of the press. In the case of elPeriódico and my dad, things got worse in November. The newspaper published an investigation titled “La Trama Rusa” (“The Russian Plot”) on how the president made a business deal with a Russian company in which the state of Guatemala granted a concession to develop a mine, and that the president was [allegedly] paid for it. That was the breaking point.

Can you tell us more about your father’s case? What is he accused of?

In Guatemala, legal processes generally take years in terms of investigation and processes. But [the legal case against Zamora] was all set up in 72 hours. It based on a complaint from a “denunciante” [a man Zamora asked to help him but who later informed on the journalist].

My father is accused of money laundering and blackmail. What happened is that a serious businessman gave my dad 300,000 quetzales [US$38,050] to support the newspaper. My father contacted the [man who became the] “denunciante” [to put the money into his business’s bank account] and give him a check from his company. My dad wanted that check deposited into the account of Aldea Global, the company that owns elPeriódico. But when my father goes to deposit the check, [it bounced].

[Editor’s note: According to an interview with Zamora’s lawyer in Central American online outlet El Faro, the reason that Zamora did not deposit the donation directly into Aldea Global’s account, but asked the man who became the “denunciante” to write him a check from his account, was because this triangulation helped him protect the identity of the donor.]

[For] blackmail, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the whistleblower believed that my father’s funds had come from blackmailing someone, but there is no proof.

Can you tell us why your father has to spend 90 days in pretrial detention?

The judge gave the Public Prosecutor’s Office the maximum amount of time for the investigation, three months, and ordered [my father to] pretrial detention. My father meets all the requirements to be granted “substitute measures” [similar to parole] and be under house arrest. But they want him there in prison, because they want to humiliate him and make a public example of him. Even when they took him to the hearings, everything was excessive, as if they were taking one of the biggest organized crime bosses.

Everything has been very public, and this is just an example in a series of systematic attacks against democracy and against the press. My dad is an example, but the broader message is for everyone, and that is that they are going to persecute any critical voice.

How are elPeriódico’s journalists working at the moment?

They all believe deeply in their work, its importance for democracy, and in making a better country. So they continue to work, but it’s very challenging when the newsroom’s leader is gone. On the other hand, there is a financial issue. For almost 15 days, they froze the accounts. The journalists did not receive their salaries for almost three weeks. And that demonstrates a lot: not only the journalists’ strength and determination, and conviction because they continued to work in a very tense situation, but also without any income. Little by little, this is getting resolved, but it’s complicated.

What do journalists in Guatemala need in order to do their work freely?

What they need is freedom. A decent state should see the press as an ally. The truth is that they can’t know everything that happens in all state institutions. They should be transparent, but the state is massive. So the state should support and have a decent relationship with the press and allow them to do their job, because it would even allow them to stop corruption.

What do you want now for your father’s case?

The main request is that he should be released. The evidence is weak, and they haven’t been able to prove anything.

The second point: If they are going to detain him, they should grant him substitute measures, and he should be able to wait for the process to take place under house arrest.

And thirdly, they should not persecute the newspaper as a company. In doing so, they have attacked not only press freedom, but also all the journalists and the people who work at elPeriódico. They also went after the financial director Flora Silva and imprisoned her. She is another person who, at minimum, should also be under substitute measures and house arrest.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Dánae Vílchez.

Zamora, who founded elPeriódico in 1996 and still serves as president of the newspaper, was arrested on July 29. He remains in pre-trial detention in the Mariscal Zavala prison in Guatemala City, as prosecutors conduct a criminal investigation on charges of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling.

Zamora, his family, and his colleagues have claimed that the case is retaliation for elPeriódico’s reporting on alleged corruption involving Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras.

Zamora’s son, José Zamora, who is also a journalist and currently works at Exile Content Studio, a Spanish-language entertainment and media firm, in Miami, spoke to CPJ in a video interview about his father’s case and the current state of press freedom and democracy in Guatemala.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In response to CPJ’s request for comment, Juan Luis Pantaleon, a spokesperson for the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office, said in an email that the case against Zamora is “not about any political persecution or any attack” on freedom of expression. CPJ emailed the office of the executive secretary of the presidency but did not receive a reply.

This is not the first time your father has faced harassment from Guatemalan officials.

José Zamora: My father has a career of more than 30 years in journalism, and he was the first journalist to start doing investigative journalism, with his team, in Guatemala. This has led to a series of attacks and harassment and persecution over the years: defamation campaigns, fiscal terrorism, and many others.

For example, they said the newspaper hasn’t been paying taxes for years. They came to audit the newspaper but did not find anything.

Then there were the lawsuits. At one point, there were 195 spurious lawsuits against my father and the outlet, some of them even misusing important laws, like the law against femicide, which is intended to protect women who face abuse from their partners. Several officials sued my father using this law, which is a total aberration.

And then you have the commercial boycott. The government and the president have threatened influential business people and basically prohibited them from advertising in the newspaper.

My father has also been subjected to threats, kidnappings, and bombings. In 2003, there was a kidnapping. They entered my parent’s house — my siblings and I still lived with my parents at the time — and held us hostage for about three hours.

In 2008, they tried again to kill my dad. They kidnapped him coming out of a restaurant, took him away, beat him, injected him with something to kill him, and then left him. Luckily that place was so cold that he got hypothermia. And hypothermia was, in the end, what saved him. Firefighters brought him in, thinking he was a corpse, and when they began to prepare for the autopsy, they realized that he had vital signs [and treated him].

But this imprisonment is totally new. They had been trying to do this for the last year, but it did not happen until now. Several times, different sources warned us that they were fabricating cases against him.

How is your father?

He is in an isolated cell, and in general, he is in good health and in good spirits. He wants to fight and continue doing journalism even while there. At some point, he did have some health problems — his cell was filled with bedbugs, which bit him and gave him an allergic reaction. But now he is generally in good health and is much better.

What was the newspaper publishing before your father was arrested?

President Giammattei has been in power for 130 weeks, more or less, and elPeriódico has published 130 investigations. So there has not been a week without reporting on some act of corruption in his administration.

In the country in general, Giammattei has led a systematic attack on democracy and has persecuted anyone who is considered a critic. The most recent of these systematic attacks on democracy is this persecution of the press. In the case of elPeriódico and my dad, things got worse in November. The newspaper published an investigation titled “La Trama Rusa” (“The Russian Plot”) on how the president made a business deal with a Russian company in which the state of Guatemala granted a concession to develop a mine, and that the president was [allegedly] paid for it. That was the breaking point.

Can you tell us more about your father’s case? What is he accused of?

In Guatemala, legal processes generally take years in terms of investigation and processes. But [the legal case against Zamora] was all set up in 72 hours. It based on a complaint from a “denunciante” [a man Zamora asked to help him but who later informed on the journalist].

My father is accused of money laundering and blackmail. What happened is that a serious businessman gave my dad 300,000 quetzales [US$38,050] to support the newspaper. My father contacted the [man who became the] “denunciante” [to put the money into his business’s bank account] and give him a check from his company. My dad wanted that check deposited into the account of Aldea Global, the company that owns elPeriódico. But when my father goes to deposit the check, [it bounced].

[Editor’s note: According to an interview with Zamora’s lawyer in Central American online outlet El Faro, the reason that Zamora did not deposit the donation directly into Aldea Global’s account, but asked the man who became the “denunciante” to write him a check from his account, was because this triangulation helped him protect the identity of the donor.]

[For] blackmail, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the whistleblower believed that my father’s funds had come from blackmailing someone, but there is no proof.

Can you tell us why your father has to spend 90 days in pretrial detention?

The judge gave the Public Prosecutor’s Office the maximum amount of time for the investigation, three months, and ordered [my father to] pretrial detention. My father meets all the requirements to be granted “substitute measures” [similar to parole] and be under house arrest. But they want him there in prison, because they want to humiliate him and make a public example of him. Even when they took him to the hearings, everything was excessive, as if they were taking one of the biggest organized crime bosses.

Everything has been very public, and this is just an example in a series of systematic attacks against democracy and against the press. My dad is an example, but the broader message is for everyone, and that is that they are going to persecute any critical voice.

How are elPeriódico’s journalists working at the moment?

They all believe deeply in their work, its importance for democracy, and in making a better country. So they continue to work, but it’s very challenging when the newsroom’s leader is gone. On the other hand, there is a financial issue. For almost 15 days, they froze the accounts. The journalists did not receive their salaries for almost three weeks. And that demonstrates a lot: not only the journalists’ strength and determination, and conviction because they continued to work in a very tense situation, but also without any income. Little by little, this is getting resolved, but it’s complicated.

What do journalists in Guatemala need in order to do their work freely?

What they need is freedom. A decent state should see the press as an ally. The truth is that they can’t know everything that happens in all state institutions. They should be transparent, but the state is massive. So the state should support and have a decent relationship with the press and allow them to do their job, because it would even allow them to stop corruption.

What do you want now for your father’s case?

The main request is that he should be released. The evidence is weak, and they haven’t been able to prove anything.

The second point: If they are going to detain him, they should grant him substitute measures, and he should be able to wait for the process to take place under house arrest.

And thirdly, they should not persecute the newspaper as a company. In doing so, they have attacked not only press freedom, but also all the journalists and the people who work at elPeriódico. They also went after the financial director Flora Silva and imprisoned her. She is another person who, at minimum, should also be under substitute measures and house arrest.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Dánae Vílchez.

In his decision, Judge Freddy Orellana said there was “reasonable suspicion” that Zamora had been involved in the alleged crimes, and ordered him to remain in detention for the remainder of the investigation, according to news reports. Judge Orellana ordered prosecutors to present evidence by November 9 and set the next hearing in the case for December 8, according to reports.

“The continued detention of José Rubén Zamora is completely unwarranted and shows that Guatemalan prosecutors are scrambling to find any excuse to justify their actions against a journalist who is critical of the government,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. “Despite what Guatemalan politicians think, reporting on corruption is not a crime. Authorities must immediately drop the charges against Zamora, release him, and stop using the criminal justice system to attack the press.”

Last May, Guatemalan officials filed a criminal suit against three journalists from elPeriódico, including Zamora, under the violence against women law, as CPJ documented. Zamora was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995.  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

“Guatemalan authorities should immediately release and drop any criminal charges against journalist José Rubén Zamora, president of elPeriódico,” said CPJ Advocacy Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser in New York. “Judicial persecution against journalists is a mechanism of intimidation, and authorities in Guatemala need to put an end to their campaign to intimidate and threaten the press.”

Guatemalan police arrested Zamora on Friday, July 29, and raided the offices of elPeriódico, according to news reports. Zamora was arrested at his home in Guatemala City on charges including possible money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling, according to news reports citing the Guatemalan attorney general’s office.

The publication’s staff denounced the actions as retaliation for its previous reporting on President Alejandro Giammattei, as well as Attorney General Consuelo Porras. 

In a video posted on social media on Saturday, July 30, Zamora says he would begin a hunger strike in protest of his arrest.

Last May, Guatemalan official filed a criminal suit against three journalists from elPeriódico, including Zamora, under the violence against women law, as CPJ documented. Zamora was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 1995.  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

At about 2 a.m. on Sunday, July 17, unidentified attackers shot at Haro, founder and editor of the Facebook-based news outlet Las Noticias de la Red, in Ciudad Obregón, in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, according to news reports, a statement by his outlet, and Haro, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Haro was driving in the area when he heard something hit his car windows; a vehicle then passed him, stopped, and began to turn around, Haro told CPJ, saying, “That’s when I realized that the people inside it had shot at me.”

Haro escaped the scene unharmed, he said. In a short thread on Twitter, the Sonora state prosecutor’s office confirmed Haro’s car had been hit by bullets and said the gunmen drove a white Honda. The office said it had contacted the Federal Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression to determine whether Haro was attacked because of his work.

Earlier in July, radio reporter Susana Carreño survived a knife attack near the coastal resort city of Puerto Vallarta, in the central state of Jalisco, as CPJ documented at the time.

“The attempted shooting of journalist Rubén Haro is outrageous and shocking, weeks after another Mexican journalist barely escaped with her life after a knife attack,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “With 2022 already on track to become the deadliest year for Mexican journalists in recent memory, authorities must do everything in their power to break the cycle of violence and impunity that allows these attacks to continue.”

CPJ called the Sonora prosecutor’s office and the special prosecutor’s office for comment, but no one answered.

Haro told CPJ that he founded Las Noticias de la Red three years ago and serves as its editor and main reporter. He said he had contributed less to the outlet recently, after he joined the municipal government of Nogales, a city at the U.S. border, as a public relations official.

Haro told CPJ that he had never received threats or had been targeted with violence before, saying, “I have no idea why I was targeted. I have never had problems with anyone, nor have we [at Las Noticias de la Red] had any problems as a team.”

Las Noticias de la Red covers a wide range of current events in Ciudad Obregón and its surrounding municipalities, including news about crime and security, according to CPJ’s review of its output.

Just over an hour before the attack, the outlet published two videos about shootouts in Ciudad Obregón, showing how a reporter for the outlet followed emergency services while commenting about the events.

Haro told CPJ that he had reported the attack to the federal attorney general’s office and had received security from municipal police. He added that he was still waiting to hear from the National Guard, Mexico’s elite police corps, for further security.

Haro said he had been in touch with the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists after the attack about being incorporated in a protection program. An official with that office, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to CPJ that the agency has established contact with Haro.

Mexico is the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists. According to CPJ research, at least three journalists have been murdered for their work this year. CPJ is investigating another eight killings to determine the motive.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On May 13, Judge Anaelsee Ramírez formally notified elPeriódico publisher José Rubén Zamora, editor Gerson Ortiz, and reporter Cristian Velix of a restraining order in connection with a criminal lawsuit filed by Dina Bosch Ochoa, a Guatemalan official and the daughter of Dina Ochoa, the president of Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, according to Guatemalan news website Agencia Ocote.

Zamora told CPJ via phone that Bosch Ochoa accused them of “violence against women in the public sphere” after the outlet reported in April that the Guatemalan Electoral Authority renewed her contract for an unspecified position within the agency and covered her alleged links to a corruption case.

The restraining order bars the journalists from approaching the plaintiff or her family members — including Bosch’s mother, a public official – and reporting on them. If convicted of psychological violence against women under the Law Against Femicide, the journalists face five to eight years in prison.

“Guatemalan authorities should immediately drop the criminal charges against Jose Rubén Zamora, Gerson Ortiz, and Cristian Velix, and they must stop allowing officials and those close to them to use laws intended to protect women to intimidate journalists,” said Natalie Southwick, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, in New York. “Guatemala’s Law Against Femicide was created to address the country’s high rates of gender-based violence, not to enable powerful individuals to escape criticism or censor the press.”

This is the 17th complaint filed against elPeriódico using the Law Against Femicide, according to a press release on Twitter by elPeriódico. According to the release, Bosch Ochoa initially filed the suit on April 25, but a court specializing in violence against women rejected it and wrote, “there was no personal or working relationship between the complainant and the accused, nor did they work in the same institution.” The Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office then appealed the decision.

CPJ called the Guatemalan judiciary and sent a WhatsApp message to Juan Luis Pantaleón, spokesperson for the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s office, for comment but did not immediately receive a reply. CPJ was unable to identify contact information for Bosch Ochoa or her attorneys.

In July 2018, Sandra Jovel, then Guatemala’s minister of foreign affairs, filed a lawsuit against Zamora for “psychological injury” caused by critical articles in December 2013 under the same law, according to LatAm Journalism Review and as CPJ documented.

In June 2021, two relatives of Miguel Martínez, the former director of the Government Center presidential commission, part of the Guatemalan executive branch, filed a criminal suit against journalists Marvin del Cid and Sonny Figueroa under the same law, CPJ documented at the time.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.