Its final entrance web page featured a single headline: “We are saying NO to Energy 1996-2023.”
Dozens of journalists, prosecutors, judges and human rights activists have fled Guatemala in recent times as the federal government has taken an more and more authoritarian flip.
Within the case of El Periódico, not solely is Zamora in jail; 4 of his protection attorneys have been detained on prison costs. Six reporters and three columnists are below investigation.
“It’s actually turning into a rustic the place democracy is dying,” mentioned Eric Olson, director of coverage on the Seattle Worldwide Basis.
Unbiased media in Central America are dealing with a few of their most troublesome moments since a number of of the area’s nations transitioned from dictatorship to democracy twenty years in the past.
The storied Nicaraguan every day La Prensa, edited by generations of the Chamorro household, left the nation in 2022 after its writer and journalists have been imprisoned or harassed by the federal government of Daniel Ortega. In El Salvador, the investigative publication El Faro recently moved its administrative headquarters to Costa Rica, saying that its journalists had been focused with spyware and adware assaults, threats and “fabricated prison accusations” throughout President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs.
The Biden administration has recognized strengthening anticorruption packages and governance in Central America as essential to deterring unlawful migration. “Regardless of all that,” Olson mentioned, “these nations have continued on this downward path and appear to be type of ignoring the USA.”
El Periódico distinguished itself with hard-hitting protection of presidency corruption, publishing greater than 200 investigations since President Alejandro Giammattei took workplace in January 2020. The every day has received many awards; Zamora was named one in every of 50 World Press Freedom Heroes by the International Press Institute in 2000.
The writer has been in jail since July, accused of cash laundering, blackmail and affect peddling. He has known as his arrest a “political persecution.” Analysts and human rights teams mentioned will probably be troublesome for Zamora to get a good trial in a system led by Lawyer Common María Consuelo Porras, a Giammattei ally accused of penalizing Guatemalan prosecutors who’ve pursued corruption or human rights violations. Final yr, Porras was placed on a U.S. State Department list of “corrupt and undemocratic actors.”
The lawyer normal’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark Monday on Zamora’s case. The federal government has mentioned Zamora was being investigated for allegedly unlawful enterprise actions, not his journalism. Nobody answered the phone within the presidential press workplace. Giammattei has defended Porras as unbiased.
Julia Corado, the editor of El Periódico, mentioned Zamora’s arrest had been an enormous blow.
“The federal government thought we might solely be capable of preserve the newspaper going for 2 weeks at most after he was detained, however the reporters and workers on the paper have been robust and endured the assaults and harassment that adopted,” she informed The Washington Put up. Advertisers have been threatened with prison costs in the event that they continued to do enterprise with the newspaper, she mentioned.
Below growing monetary strain, El Periódico printed its remaining print version on Nov. 30, however continued to submit information and opinion on on-line. Most reporters have been laid off. Lastly, the every day introduced it was shutting down on Monday. The final version featured an editorial written in jail by Zamora.
“Regardless of the fatigue, the extreme antagonistic situations, the humiliation and scorn, I cannot hand over my battle for freedom and democracy in Guatemala,” he wrote.
Zamora, 66, was accustomed to strain from the themes of his newspaper’s reporting. Years in the past, assailants tossed grenades at his house. His automotive exploded exterior a restaurant. In 2003, safety forces broke into his house and held him and his household hostage for hours.
His son, additionally named José, mentioned bodily threats step by step gave technique to authorized harassment. At one level, the newspaper confronted 140 civil lawsuits, which ate up money and time. “Then issues advanced, and so they started to make use of prison legislation,” he mentioned.
“What you see is the straightforward act of doing journalism — investigating, denouncing corruption — is being criminalized,” he mentioned.
Press freedom organizations have protested Zamora’s prosecution. Leopoldo Maldonado, director of the Mexico and Central America workplace of Article 19, mentioned the federal government was making “an instance” of El Periódico to intimidate different publications.
“It’s creating self-censorship amongst Guatemalan journalists and inflicting Guatemalans to lose their proper to data,” he mentioned.
Olson, of the Seattle Worldwide Basis, mentioned Central American leaders look like betting that Washington is not going to push them too exhausting so long as they cooperate on the politically delicate challenge of controlling U.S.-bound migration. Whereas the Biden administration has emphasised its concern for human rights and democratic rules within the area, Olson mentioned, “the immigration focus has actually taken priority over these different points publicly.”
Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.