In his first week of freedom, after spending two years in prison without a sentence, Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora reflects in his first interview, granted to The Associated Pressabout the difficult situation of the press in his country and about the fear of journalists of ending up in jail for investigating corruption.
His arrest, in July 2022, following an investigation by the prosecutor’s office against him, has affected journalism in the country: “Not only are there important journalists in exile, but in the unconscious of the journalists who remain in Guatemala “There is a specter, no matter how small, that (when investigating) they can end up in jail.”
Zamora, a 68-year-old journalist recognized in Guatemala for the investigations of the media outlet he founded—El Periódico—into corruption in previous governments and in the judicial system, faced two criminal proceedings. One for money laundering and another for obstruction of justice. He claims that he was arrested for his journalistic work.
As for the press, he himself sees a somewhat uncertain future. He still does not have any proposal to return to journalism, what there is is an interest from the prosecutor’s office for him to return to prison. At the hearing in which his release was ordered, the judge in the case revealed that there was a new investigation underway against Zamora.
“There is no democracy without the press or independent journalists,” he emphasizes. And he says that what he experienced in the more than 800 days imprisoned in a Guatemalan prison — where he reported having received humiliating treatment — will have more impact on his life than what he did in 30 years as a journalist.
The prosecutor prosecuting his case, Rafael Curruchiche, has requested that the house arrest granted to him by a judge be revoked, alleging that there is a risk of flight. Zamora says that he will stay in the country to face justice, because he is innocent of the accusations.
He was released from prison on Saturday, October 19, after Judge Erick García, citing national and international conventions on human rights, mentioned that the preventive detention served by Zamora “had exceeded the time allowed by law.”
One day after that decision he returned home, to his “church,” as he says. “Everything good and bad that has happened to me has been here.”
The prosecutor’s office raided his home and arrested the journalist in July 2022. They accused him of money laundering for asking a friend to bank about $38,000, which, according to Zamora, was the product of the sale of a painting to finance El Periódico.
His defense alleged that he was not the one who banked the money because the person who had made the donation did not want to receive retaliation for financing the media. The money never entered the banking system. The journalist was sentenced to six years in prison for this case, but the ruling was annulled due to failures in due process.
Upon his return home, he found an empty house that still smells of confinement and abandonment. Without his family, who also had to seek exile for fear that the criminalization that Zamora says he suffered would also reach them. National police permanently guard his home.
What he misses most, he says, is the bustle of his family at home and he hopes in the coming months to request permission from the judge to be able to leave Guatemala to visit them. They requested political asylum and are prohibited from leaving the country where they are.
He says that he is shy and that it bothers him to now be the target of news and interviews. He assumes that he can still feel the aftereffects of prison in his bones, but he feels closer to his family, with whom he can now talk.
“Frankly, that feeling of not having money that is mine is complicated… And I also have no way to get around,” he describes. As a result of his arrest, he had to sell vehicles and other belongings to pay for his defense. Now he depends financially on his children.
Upon his release from prison, he said that his health would be his priority. Although as a journalist, he has preferred to prioritize telling his story and in the coming days he will visit his doctors and undergo health examinations. Every Wednesday you have the obligation to go to the prosecutor’s office to put your fingerprint; It is one of the substitute measures for prison.
He never ceases to be surprised by how people, including agents and employees of the prosecutor’s office, have shown him affection. “I worry about people saying hello to me, because they could have some consequences,” he says.
Zamora did journalism for 30 years — 24 years of them as president of El Periódico — and assures that the publications to monitor power are what led him to be persecuted by the prosecutor’s office, especially those he made against former president Alejandro Giammattei, who He re-elected the current Attorney General Consuelo Porras and said he was a friend of hers.
The journalist says that the investigation called “The Russian Carpet” is the cause of his arrest, in which former President Giammattei is accused of having allegedly received bribes from Russian businessmen, wrapped in a carpet, in exchange for the awarding of works. The prosecution did not investigate and closed the case.
“I thought that the case was going to transcend and that I had more importance and weight than I really had in the country; “I thought I was going to have the chance to publish and survive that,” he said.
He remembers that before his arrest, he had dinner once a month, for several months, with the attorney general, who later became his accuser.
In meetings, she complained about his posts and criticism, but she believed there was a good relationship, she says. “The last meeting he didn’t invite me to dinner; It was a few months before they arrested me, it was a three-hour tirade, he left me at the meeting with his employees, he didn’t come back,” he remembers. It was the last time he met her.
Porras and Curruchiche are sanctioned by 40 countries that prevent them from entering their territories for hindering the anti-corruption fight and undermining democracy in Guatemala.
With his arrest, the media disappeared and eight of its journalists and columnists are in exile for publishing articles about the abuse of power by judges and prosecutors. Of the newspaper he only keeps stacks of file boxes with copies accumulated in the garage of his house.
One of the first to visit Zamora after his release was President Bernardo Arévalo.
“We spoke in general, nothing personal,” summarizes the journalist. “I explained to him that in Guatemala there have never been institutions dedicated to control or oversight with rigor. That is why the importance of the press: there is no persecution or punishment for the corrupt, rather there are walls of impunity.”
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