Guatemalan police arrest editor of Critical of Government newspaper, #Guatemalan #Police #Judgment #Newspaper #Editor #Critical #Government Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The founder and president of one of Guatemala’s leading newspapers, who has been a staunch critic of president
Alejandro Giammattei,
was arrested late Friday in Guatemala City on charges of money laundering, blackmail and influencer, Guatemalan authorities said.
Guatemalan police arrested
Jose Ruben Zamora
a businessman and renowned journalist who runs the newspaper elPeriódico, at his home in a tree-lined residential area in the capital after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, the country’s attorney general’s office said.
“This is a political persecution,” Mr Zamora told reporters, flanked by police officers, outside his home. A group of people gathered on the site and shouted, “You are not alone! You are not alone!”
The head of the anti-corruption unit at the Attorney General’s office, in charge of the investigation,
Raphael Curruchiche,
said the arrest had nothing to do with Mr Zamora’s work as a journalist, but with his business activities. He said an assistant prosecutor had also been arrested for allegedly disclosing confidential information in the case, but did not provide further details.
Associations of journalists, human rights organizations and some legal experts condemned Mr Zamora’s arrest as an attack on freedom of expression and open harassment in retaliation for the newspaper coverage.
“Criminal law is being used arbitrarily and insultingly,” said Claudia Paz y Paz, a former Guatemalan chief prosecutor.
The newspaper of Mr. Founded in 1996, Zamora specializes in investigative reporting, with a particular focus on government corruption. The newspaper reported early this month that several businessmen close to Mr Giammattei have secured $119 million in government contracts.
Mr Zamora has accused Mr Giammattei, a conservative former prison warden who took office in January 2020 for a non-renewable four-year term, of establishing a “narco-dictatorship” in Guatemala. In a newspaper column published early this month, Mr. Zamora that Mr. Giammattei had handed over control of the country to drug cartels and the corrupt. A spokesman for Mr Giammattei was not immediately available for comment.
The arrest comes at a time of heightened political tension in Guatemala, more than a year before the presidential election. Many in the Central American country view Giammattei, who was elected in 2019, as a corrupt and authoritarian leader who serves the interests of a wealthy right-wing minority.
Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, is a conservative ex-prison director who took office in January 2020.
Photo:
Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Bloomberg News
Confidence in the Guatemala Attorney General’s office has also eroded in recent years. Last September, the US government included Attorney General Consuelo Porras on a list of corrupt and undemocratic actors, making her ineligible to enter the US. improper political favor.”
A few months after the appointment in September, Mr. Giammattei appointed Ms. Porras for a new four-year term.
Mr Curruchiche, the current anti-corruption prosecutor, was also listed as a corrupt official by the State Department earlier this month.
The turbulent political situation in Guatemala, an impoverished Central American country of 17 million inhabitants, has contributed to an increase in migration flows to the US, immigration experts say. Guatemala has experienced a lot of crime and political violence, and there has been a growing perception among many Guatemalans that the country is not making progress in the fight against corruption and inequality.
About 178,000 Guatemalans were detained on the US southern border between October and June, according to the US Border Patrol, second only to the number of Mexicans detained.
Ms Porras assumed the position of Attorney General in 2018, replacing:
Thelma Aldana
who in that capacity had investigated several high-profile government corruption cases in conjunction with the United Nations-sponsored International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. The investigations led to unprecedented protests in 2015.
Ms. Aldana Persecuted and Imprisoned the Former President
Otto Perez
and had failed to impeach the former president
Jimmy Morales.
Mr Morales expelled the UN agency for anti-transplantation in 2019 after being investigated for illegal campaign financing.
Last year Mrs Porras fired
Juan Francisco Sandova,
who was the head of the anti-corruption unit and had worked closely with Ms Aldana. Mr Sandoval, whose resignation sparked protests across the country, said his removal was triggered by his investigation into government corruption related to Mr Giammattei and his associates.
Mr Sandoval fled to El Salvador and then to the US. Ms. Aldana, who tried for president in 2019 but was barred from participating, also went into exile and was granted asylum in the US
Write to Juan Montes at [email protected]
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