Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, former director of the newspaper elPeriódicoleft the Mariscal Zavala military prison this Saturday heading to his home, to which he had not returned for 812 days. Zamora obtained the benefit of house arrest on Friday at night after a long day in court. He is accused in two cases of various crimes, including money laundering. Zamora is considered a political prisoner, persecuted by the government of former President Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024), whom he investigated and criticized during his administration, and by the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, included on the Engel list of the United States Department of State. United States, which registers corrupt and anti-democratic people.
“I feel very extraordinarily happy. Your support, the support of the world’s independent press, organizations like ICPJhe International of Center for Journalist and others that I don’t know have been exceptional,” he said in front of the gray prison gates to the journalists who were waiting for him. He was wearing a white shirt and jeans. At times, he had to hold back tears. However, the journalist was not very optimistic about the process he faces. “I think they are going to try to lock me up again,” he warned. “If they are going to bring me back, I am going to wait for them at my house again and I am going to come here again. I think those types of actions are destroying them, not me. “I have the spirit, the courage and the faith to continue,” he said.
The former Human Rights Attorney, Jorge De León, and Gonzalo Marroquín, a journalist and Zamora’s cousin, had previously entered the prison in a white truck to accompany him on his release. “It is simply an opportunity that is being given after more than 800 days of unjustified imprisonment. So I think this is a success for Guatemala, for the Guatemalan justice system and for freedom of the press,” said Marroquín.
Outside the prison, located in the capital, a group of people came to witness Zamora’s release. “I really think that the effect that the imprisonment has had not only of José Rubén but of many others has to affect us all, because there is no free expression of thought. They are limiting us in our actions and I believe that the country really deserves and needs a change,” commented Berta Méndez, a 61-year-old auditor.
The court ruling in favor of Zamora considered that “for reasons of human rights the prison term has exceeded the limits”. Erick García, the judge who held the hearing, also decided that the journalist will not be able to leave the country without authorization.
Zamora was isolated and during the first 17 months was a victim of ill-treatment classified as torture by different organizations in defense of human rights. The newspaper he founded in the nineties, elPeriódico, He disappeared last year as a result of his arrest and the Prosecutor’s Office’s attempts to investigate his reporters. The medium was characterized by its investigative reports and by revealing the corruption of the governments in power. The journalist was linked to two cases of alleged money laundering, obstruction of justice and other crimes.
“Zamora returns home. Justice is beginning to arrive, the dark cycle is going to end,” the president, Bernardo Arévalo, wrote on Friday on the social network X. His words refer to the stage of corruption and impunity promoted by a sector of the Judiciary. Just this week, the Courts of justice in Guatemala changed their domebut concern about the independence of justice and democratic stability in the Central American country still persists. Most of the judges who will make up the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and some of the Court of Appeals, appeared in a famous corruption case, known as Parallel Commissions. In addition, jurists came to positions sponsored by old political operators, who were imprisoned for rigging the election of Cortes in 2014 and 2019, or by questioned deputies.
Zamora returns home.
Justice begins to arrive, the dark cycle is going to end.
— Bernardo Arévalo (@BArevalodeLeon) October 19, 2024
Zamora was imprisoned in the cells of the Mariscal Zavala barracks, in Guatemala City. He always maintained that the cases against him were a fabrication. “I am being judged for having permanently denounced corruption and defended freedom of expression in the country. And I continue to be a victim of judicial processes without guarantees and the right to defense,” he denounced. “I have always been aware that I was not going to let myself be defeated,” He stated in an interview with EL PAÍS last February from prison.
Subscribe here to the newsletter THE COUNTRY America and receive all the key information on current events in the region.
