Guatemala: Arrest of prominent journalist sparks outrage
Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin's elPeriodico newspaper is famous for investigations that have revealed several cases of government corruption.
Zamora Marroquin is the founder and president of elPeriodico newspaper
Human rights activists, press freedom organizations and politicians expressed condemnation on Saturday after prominent Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin was arrested by police.
Zamora Marroquin was arrested on charges of money laundering and blackmail. He was detained overnight, said Rafael Curruchiche, head of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI) on social media, after police raided his home and office earlier.
"I want to make it clear that the arrest has no relation to his quality as a journalist, but to a possible act of money laundering in his capacity as a businessman," Curruchiche said.
Zamora Marroquin, 65, founded the newspaper elPeriodico in 1996, an outlet famous for investigations that have revealed several cases of government corruption.
Speaking from a cell in a video posted to Twitter by a local journalist, Zamora Marroquin said he was beginning a hunger strike. "I haven't eaten anything nor drunk any water in 36 hours."
Journalists protested against the detention of Zamora Marroquin on Saturday, at the center of Guatemala city.
"Guatemalan authorities should immediately release and drop any criminal charges against journalist Jose Ruben Zamora, president of elPeriodico," said Committee to Protect Journalists' Advocacy Director Gypsy Guillen Kaiser in a statement.
Human rights violations in Guatemala
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in June added Guatemala to its list of countries committing serious human rights violations. Other countries on the list include Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
"We're going through one of the worst moments" with respect to corruption, Jordan Rodas, the country's ombudsman told AFP news agency.
Corruption in Guatemala is at unprecedented levels under an "authoritarian" government that punishes prosecutors and judges investigating organized crime, he added.
At least five Guatemalan journalists from different media outlets are currently in exile. More than a dozen former FECI prosecutors, judges and human rights activists have fled Guatemala over complaints and arrest warrants issued against them by the FECI.
The administration of President Alejandro Giammattei has not commented on the case.
tg/sri (AP, Reuters)
Arrest of prominent Guatemalan
journalist draws condemnation
SONIA PÉREZ D.
July 30, 2022
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A prominent Guatemalan newspaper editor who has overseen investigations into corruption has been arrested, prompting denunciations Saturday by politicians, anticorruption activists and civic groups.
Prosecution agents arrested José Ruben Zamora Marroquín at his home on Friday night, searching his home, seizing telephones and accusing him of money laundering. Zamora Marroquín is a prize-winning journalist who heads the newspaper El Periodico.
“This is an orchestrated plan, where the aim now is not to pursue those who are corrupt, but rather opponents,” said human rights activist Eleonora Muralles. “The strategy is to coopt the whole system and have judges — with serious doubts about their impartiality — put together cases and evidence against opponents.”
Journalists protested Saturday outside a courthouse where the case is being heard.
U.S. Congressman James P. McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote that he was “deeply concerned” by the detention.
McGovern wrote in his Twitter account, “The judiciary is already decimated, is the Free Press next? Journalism is not a crime!”
Zamora Marroquín has declared a hunger strike. Speaking before a court hearing, he said, “I haven’t eaten anything nor drunk any water in 36 hours.”
The U.S. government has sharply criticized the weakening of anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala and last year cancelled the U.S. visa of Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been pursuing former prosecutors who had been conducting corruption investigations against officials..
More than former anti-corruption officials have fled the country. Now that effort appears to have extended to journalists.
Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei has been dismissive of U.S. officials’ criticism of his attorney general and what they see as a backsliding in Guatemala on battling corruption. The country’s new special prosecutor against impunity has been placed on a U.S. list of people suspected of corruption or undermining democracy. He is accused of obstructing corruption investigations.
Giammattei’s government and prosecutors accelerated efforts begun by his predecessor to undo a U.N.-backed anti-corruption campaign that put several top officials, including former presidents, behind bars. They say those prosecutions themselves were irregular.
Moreover, a number of the Guatemalans, including two Supreme Court magistrates, were allegedly involved in a scheme to stack the Supreme and Appellate Courts with corrupt judges, according to the State Department report.
No comments:
Post a Comment