On February 28, Judge Jimi Bremer in Guatemala ordered prosecutors to investigate journalists and columnists who have worked for the daily newspaper El Periódico.
According to top prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso, the investigations stem from the fact that the six journalists and three columnists had published stories about complaints against the Public Prosecutor’s office and questioned her and other officials. As the Associated Press reports, Monterroso said that there needed to be an investigation into who assigned and funded the stories.
The move is the latest in a series of attacks on the press in the Central American country, especially as the country has seen a rise in authoritarian overreach in recent years.
“[We are] profoundly concerned,” Claudia Samayoa of the Guatemalan human rights organization UDEFEGUA tells The Progressive. “We have seen for years a trend particularly of criminalizing local reporters by local authorities. However, we [are especially concerned] that criminalization is beginning to be ordered and directed from the judiciary, that is, the Public Prosecutor’s office.”
Previously, the Public Prosecutor’s office used the same tactic to open an investigation into the independent media outlet Agencia Ocote, after reporters visited and interviewed former anti-impunity investigator Virginia Laparra following her sentencing and imprisonment on false charges. Laparra is considered to be a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and has faced torture as part of the case against her.
The investigations of the El Periódico journalists and columnists were announced as part of an expansion of charges against the newspaper’s owner and founder José Rubén Zamora.
José Rubén Zamora
Zamora was arrested in August 2022 on money laundering charges, but the Public Prosecutor’s office claimed its investigation of him had nothing to do with his work as a journalist. The case has been marked by a number of irregularities and has received international condemnation. As Samaoya points out: the goal of those accusing Zamora is to “effectively close El Periódico.”
The U.S. State Department condemned the investigation of journalists. Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry responded by saying that the comments of one State Department official represent an “attack on sovereignty.” The Public Prosecutor’s office also condemned the statement, calling it“irresponsible.”
International press freedom organizations, too, have denounced the investigation.
“Guatemalan authorities should immediately stop any investigation into the columnists and employees of El Periódico and any further prosecution of its president, José Ruben Zamora,” Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the program director for Latin America with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a press statement. “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 . . . journalists working tirelessly to expose corruption.”
Journalists gathered on March 4 outside the Judicial Tower and Supreme Court to protest the investigation of El Periódico’s staff, calling it an attack on the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
The press has increasingly faced a more hostile situation in Guatemala, where government agencies rarely respond to requests for comment. This is a reflection of the deterioration of press freedoms in the region over the last four years.
As the Public Prosecutor’s office began to investigate journalists, Rafael Curruchiche, the current head of Guatemala's Special Fiscal Against Impunity, issued a video on Twitter accusing journalists and the social media discourse surrounding the criminalization of journalists as a threat to judges, prosecutors, and investigators.
“A series of publications have been generated in which, in a systematic, coordinated, and irresponsible way has attacked the investigation, coerced, and obstructed, trying to directly influence the complainant, prosecutors, and judges through threats and intimidation,” Curruchiche said in the video. “[This] constitutes an attack on the administration of justice and, consequently, also on judicial independence.”
Curruchiche is currently listed on the United States’ “Engel list” of corrupt and anti-democratic actors.
Guatemala has seen a deterioration of democratic systems in the years since the closure of the United Nations backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, commonly known as CICIG, by the administration of then-President Jimmy Morales in September 2019. Since then, criminal prosecutions against judges, prosecutors, investigators, journalists, and activists involved in the anti-corruption efforts have climbed.
The rollbacks in the last four years come as the country is set to hold its first presidential election since the CICIG was closed, and as authoritarianism gains ground across Central America. However, the new authoritarianism in Guatemala will not likely mirror Nicaragua, where president Daniel Ortega has taken extraordinary steps to remove checks to his power. Rather, it will more likely be, as Samaoya points out, similar to the previous military dictatorships in Guatemala which maintained the facade of democratic norms.
“Before they used to kill journalists,” Samaoya says. “Now what it is about is eliminating public opinion…and they are trying to eliminate it under the argument that the activity is really criminal.”