Central America
Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora
June 14 |
A Guatemalan court will decide this Wednesday whether to sentence journalist José Rubén Zamora, nationally and internationally recognized for his investigations on corruption and a strong critic of the government of President Alejandro Giammattei, accused of money laundering, extortion and influence peddling.
The sentence comes after several organizations denounced an escalation of authoritarianism in the country that includes the persecution of journalists and judicial officials and the exclusion of candidates who are not part of the traditional political forces.
The 66 year-old journalist has said he is innocent of the prosecution’s accusations and was tried without the court allowing evidence to be presented in his favor. Cinthia Monterroso is the prosecutor accusing him.
Zamora was director of El Periódico, a newspaper that closed its doors on May 15 under political and financial pressures, in which he exposed the accusations against Monterroso for abuse of power for allegedly using his position to investigate the unfaithful husband of a friend, among other allegations.
Monterroso asked the court that Zamora be sentenced to 40 years in prison for allegedly laundering bribe money and influence peddling and asked for aggravated sentences for “contempt for authority” for the journalist’s publications about the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, and the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, both sanctioned by the US government for hindering the anti-corruption fight and undermining democracy in the country.
According to the prosecutor, Zamora asked his friend Ronald García Navarijo, a former banker accused of corruption, to deposit more than $30,000 in cash in a bank. Instead of doing so, he denounced Zamora.
Zamora’s defense claims that the money was the proceeds of a donation and that the journalist did not deposit it in an account of his own to avoid it becoming known who the donor was due to government pressure on El Periódico.
Meanwhile, Zamora’s family has said that what triggered the journalist’s imprisonment was the publication of a case known as “The Russian Plot”, according to which President Giammattei allegedly received bribes from Russian businessmen in exchange for benefits in mega-project concessions.
National and international press and human rights organizations have pointed out that the case against Zamora is a criminalization of journalism in Guatemala and have requested his release.
Although the prosecutor’s office has said that there is no persecution against the press, it asked Judge Jimi Bremer to authorize investigations against nine journalists from El Periódico for their publications about judges and prosecutors who had allegedly failed in the process against Zamora.
The prosecutor’s office has also charged Zamora in two other cases, one of them for falsification of documents for allegedly having incorrectly signed immigration tickets when leaving or entering the country.
Judge Bremer himself, at the request of the prosecutor’s office headed by Monterroso, is the one who has ordered the initiation of this investigation.
Zamora has received awards such as the Maria Moors Cabot Award from Columbia University, the International Press Freedom Award and the World Press Freedom Hero Award from the International Press Institute.
Central America
Arévalo warns of ‘Dark Interests’ targeting human rights defenders in Guatemala
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León warned on Thursday that human rights defenders are facing serious threats, aggression, and criminalization by “dark interests” embedded within the structures of the State.
“Today we are facing serious levels of threats, aggression, and criminalization against people who promote respect for human rights, coming from actors and criminal networks—sometimes embedded in State institutions—that refuse to accept that Guatemala is changing,” Arévalo said during a public event held at the former Government Palace.
During the event, authorities presented the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 2025–2035, an initiative developed in compliance with a 2014 resolution from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), issued in response to the killing of activist Florentín Gudiel Ramos in 2004.
Central America
Newborn found in Costa Rican dump survives two days in unsanitary conditions
Costa Rican media outlets report that a newborn baby was found in a garbage dump, where he had reportedly spent two days in unsanitary conditions.
Police located the infant after a resident alerted authorities upon hearing crying coming from a clandestine dumping site in the Rancho Guanacaste area. The newborn was discovered alive inside a drainage channel, covered in waste. He was immediately taken to the National Children’s Hospital, where he received medical care and is now in stable condition.
“The National Children’s Hospital confirms that we indeed received a newborn approximately four or five days old who was found in a wooded area near the Alajuelita roundabout. He was first taken to the Solón Núñez Clinic and then transferred to this hospital. As of now, the baby is in the emergency department in good condition. He arrived a bit cold, but he has been warmed, fed, and his initial physical exam is completely normal,” explained hospital director Carlos Jiménez Herrera, according to CR Hoy.
Central America
Arévalo accuses Porras and judge of undermining democracy in Guatemala
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo denounced a new attempt at a “coup” orchestrated by the Attorney General’s Office. He also requested an extraordinary session at the Organization of American States (OAS) to address the country’s ongoing political crisis.
The president has been at odds with Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for being “corrupt” and “anti-democratic.” Since 2023, Arévalo has accused Porras of launching investigations against his party, Semilla, and the 2023 elections as part of a scheme to prevent his inauguration in January 2024.
From the presidential office, Arévalo has said he continues to “resist” the “coup plotters,” but tensions escalated last Friday when Judge Fredy Orellana, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, ordered the electoral court to annul the Semilla party’s promoter group. Arévalo interpreted this as an attempt to revoke the positions won by the party.
“Orellana, a hitman who distorts the law in service of Consuelo Porras, is attempting to force […] the unconstitutional removal of a mayor, 23 elected deputies […], the vice president, and the president of the country,” Arévalo said in a televised address on Sunday.
“We call on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the coup being attempted in Guatemala,” he added, speaking alongside his cabinet and congressional members at the National Palace in Guatemala City.
Arévalo requested that the Organization of American States hold an extraordinary session to present “the serious threats” to the Guatemalan Constitution and democracy perpetrated by Porras and Orellana.
Yesterday, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Ramiro Martínez reaffirmed the president’s statements, emphasizing the need “to go and expose the situation” Guatemala has been facing since last week due to the actions of the Attorney General’s Office.
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