Global Courant
An award-winning journalist in Guatemala has been convicted of criminal charges in what human rights observers call yet another blow to press freedom and democracy in the Central American country.
José Rubén Zamora, a 66-year-old journalist and newspaper founder, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for money laundering.
When announcing his decision on Wednesday, a court in Guatemala City ruled that Zamora had “harmed the Guatemalan economy”. The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of 40 years in the case.
However, Zamora was cleared of blackmail and influencer charges due to lack of evidence presented by prosecutors.
The journalist, known for exposing corruption in Guatemala, is still facing two other criminal charges, one involving mismatched signatures on customs documents. That case was filed just days before sentencing.
The trial, which concluded on Wednesday, lasted eight hearings, lasted more than 20 days, and has sparked widespread concern and condemnation.
“My father is innocent,” Jose Zamora, the journalist’s son, told Al Jazeera ahead of Wednesday’s sentencing.
“The (Guatemalan) state kidnapped him,” he explained. “They have subjected him, in this trumped-up case, to a process that is completely contrary to his due process.”
While the prosecution has long maintained that Zamora’s case was not about his journalism, critics say the allegations and the speedy nature of the trial suggest otherwise.
The case stems from allegations made by Ronald Garcia Navarijo, a former banker accused of corruption, of a $38,000 deposit that Zamora allegedly asked someone to make on his behalf as part of a money laundering scheme.
The Salvadoran newspaper El Faro reported that prosecutors were preparing the case against Zamora inside 72 hours of receiving the accusation.
Zamora was arrested in July 2022 and held in pre-trial detention without being able to appear in court for nearly two weeks.
Other irregularities occurred during the trial, including Zamora being forced to change lawyers eight times, and at least four criminal charges related to the case.
Human rights observers have accused the government of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei of lashing out at anti-corruption advocates and the press (File: Moises Castillo/AP Photo)
Zamora and the newspaper he founded in 1996, El Periodico, have long worked to expose government misconduct. The newspaper has played a key role in exposing alleged corruption in the current administration of President Alejandro Giammattei, publishing more than 120 investigations into the government as of January 2020.
But El Periodico does forced to close on May 15 amid the fallout from the Zamora case. The journalists were investigated and the newsroom had been the target of tax audits several times in recent years.
In a statement, El Periodico’s leadership blamed “prosecution” for closing the newsroom, as well as “harassing our advertisers.” Both Zamora’s case and the closure of El Periodico have raised concerns in the international community.
“They are using all these tools to basically bankrupt[Zamora],” Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera.
“(This is) sending a very chilling message to journalists – that in fact reporting on corruption is a crime,” he said.
Journalist Jose Ruben Zamora is seen on his first day of trial on May 2 (File: Santiago Billy/AP Photo)
Attacks on press freedom
As the case against Zamora draws to a close, a new case against journalists from El Periodico is about to begin.
In February, a judge authorized the investigation of nine El Periodico journalists and columnists on charges of “conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice” at the request of the chief prosecutor in Zamora’s case. The allegations stem from publishing critical stories about the legal proceedings against Zamora.
On June 5, the prosecutor’s office officially requested all stories published since July by the journalists and columnists in the case.
But the persecution of journalists, according to observers, goes beyond the editors of El Periodico.
“The press is harassed at the level of exposure of Jose Ruben Zamora, as well as other low profile journalists and even community journalists,” Renzo Rosal, a political scientist at Landivar University in Guatemala, told Al Jazeera.
“Journalists who carry out their work domestically are victims of the same logic: the logic of persecution, the logic of criminalization, so that no one investigates anything,” he explained.
Journalists protest the arrest of Jose Ruben Zamora and hold up a copy of the newspaper he founded, El Periodico (File: Moises Castillo/AP Photo)
Critics say the criminalization of journalists has become more entrenched since President Giammattei took the oath of office in 2020. A number of renowned journalists have been forced into exile, while others face criminal prosecution and threats.
For example, Anastasia Mejía, a community journalist in Joyabaj, Quiche, was arrested in 2020 on charges of sedition and arson after covering protests against the mayor of the largely indigenous municipality in Guatemala’s western highlands. The charges were dropped a year after she was first charged.
In another 2022 case, Carlos Choc, a community journalist from the eastern municipality of El Estor, was charged with “incitement to commit a crime” after his coverage of anti-mining protests.
Eventually, Choc was acquitted, but threats against journalists in El Estor persist as police continue to intimidate other journalists working in the area.
Journalists protest outside the Supreme Court in Guatemala City on March 4 after an investigation was announced into nine El Periodico reporters (File: Wilder Lopez/AP Photo)
Roll back democracy
The verdict in the Zamora case comes within days of Guatemala’s June 25 general elections, which were also plagued by controversy.
The country’s top electoral tribunal has ruled to exclude three presidential candidates from the race on charges of non-compliance with the country’s electoral laws. Those disqualifications – which targeted at least one front runner – have raised questions about the fairness of Guatemala’s elections and democratic institutions.
“Today’s elections are another indicator of serious democratic erosion,” says Rosal.
Human rights observers have warned that Guatemala has recently seen a sharp downturn in its democracy and its anti-corruption efforts, even after the upcoming elections.
Nearly four years ago, the administration of former President Jimmy Morales oversaw the closure of the International Commission against Impunity (CICIG), a United Nations-backed initiative to tackle crime and corruption that received 70 percent public support.
Giammattei’s government has continued the trend of dismantling anti-corruption strongholds by prosecuting the judges, lawyers and activists involved in these efforts.
Lawyer Eva Siomara Sosa, former employee of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (FECI), wears handcuffs after her first court hearing in Guatemala City in 2022 (File: Luis Echeverria/Reuters)
Allegations of corruption have also reached the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office in recent years. Both Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, who was controversially re-elected in May 2022, and Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity, have been sanctioned by the United States for corruption and anti-democratic actions.
Critics say Guatemala is currently undergoing its greatest challenge since returning to democracy in 1985 after decades of military rule. At the time, those democratic reforms paved the way for the 1996 peace accords that ended the country’s 36-year internal conflict.
But for those who have lived through these tumultuous times, the current democratic crisis in Guatemala is a painful setback.
“I fought for the peace process so that there would be peace in Guatemala,” said Claudia Samayoa, one of the founders of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit in Guatemala (UDEFEGUA). Her organization grew out of the peace accords and sought to implement its terms in the post-conflict period.
But Samoyoa explained that UDEFEGUA has also been attacked, with the leadership accused of influence in connection with Zamora’s case. The organization has denied those allegations and dismissed them as a smear campaign against its human rights work.
“We have regressed in the exercise of the most basic right of defense,” Samayoa said. “These cases are backwards.”
