Dec 17 (IPS) – CIVICUS speaks with Ramón Zamora, son of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, about restrictions on press freedom and the challenges of defending human rights in Guatemala.
Rubén Zamora is a part of the CIVICUS Stand as My Witness marketing campaign, which seeks the discharge of unjustly imprisoned human rights defenders. The veteran journalist, founding father of Periódico Siglo 21 and famend for his investigations into corruption, has been preventing unfounded accusations of cash laundering for over two years. His authorized state of affairs took a flip for the more severe just lately when a court docket ordered his return to jail after a quick interval of home arrest. As his household ready to attraction, President Bernardo Arévalo denounced the court docket’s choice as an assault on freedom of expression.
What was your father’s function in Guatemalan journalism and what led him to antagonise highly effective forces?
My father comes from a household of journalists. His grandfather, Clemente Marroquín, was the founding father of La Hora, one of the necessary newspapers in Guatemalan historical past. In 1990, my father based the media outlet Siglo 21. A transition to democracy was underway and he had understood that democracy couldn’t operate with out actual freedom of expression, that’s, when folks aren’t in a position to categorical their concepts with out concern. That’s why it was necessary to have a media outlet that, on prime of offering info, additionally included a plurality of voices.
Siglo 21 opened up areas for leftist thought, which earned it threats and assaults from sources linked to the military. As well as, from the outset it handled delicate points, which shortly put it within the crosshairs of many highly effective figures. Threats and assaults quickly adopted for his investigations into corruption. In 1993, following a coup by then President Jorge Serrano Elías, who suspended the structure and dissolved Congress, the presidential safety service got here in search of my father and the household was compelled into hiding. Nevertheless, my father continued to struggle, publishing a banned version of Siglo 21, which had been censored, and sharing info with worldwide media.
After leaving Siglo 21, he based El Periódico in 1996 and Nuestro Diario in 1998, all the time with the intention of constant to analyze corruption. His investigations led to the jailing of a number of highly effective folks. Over time he suffered arbitrary therapy, assassination makes an attempt and kidnappings, however he continued his work, till 2022, when he was arbitrarily arrested and sentenced in retaliation for exposing corruption within the authorities of Alejandro Giammattei.
What have been the costs that despatched your father to jail?
He was accused of cash laundering, extortion and affect peddling. It was alleged that he used the newspaper and his entry to authorities sources to acquire privileged info to extort cash from businesspeople and public officers. Based on authorities officers, my father threatened to publish tales within the newspaper if they didn’t comply along with his calls for, and allegedly laundered the cash from these extortions by way of the newspaper.
To know the justification for his arrest, we have to think about the broader context of assaults on the newspaper. Since 2013, the newspaper has suffered financial stress and threats from authorities officers, resembling then Vice-president Roxana Baldetti, who referred to as our purchasers to threaten them with investigations in the event that they continued to assist the newspaper with promoting. This decreased the paper’s revenue by greater than half. To get across the stress, my father lastly began accepting donations from individuals who needed to stay nameless. This was one of many causes he was accused of laundering undeclared cash. My father was criminalised for defending freedom of expression and denouncing corruption.
How did your father expertise these years of arbitrary detention?
At first it was very onerous as a result of he was held in a navy jail, in a really small cell, fully remoted from different prisoners. In the identical jail have been folks convicted of corruption due to the reporting he had revealed, which put him in nice hazard. He quickly began receiving fixed threats.
Within the first few days, his cell was searched a number of instances, and bedbugs discovered their manner into his mattress, inflicting extreme bites throughout his physique. He was unable to sleep due to the fixed noise, as there was building happening subsequent to his cell. It was all very annoying, each bodily and emotionally. There have been instances when he thought he would by no means get out alive. To make issues worse, we have been typically denied authorisation to enter the jail or given ridiculous excuses, which saved him in a continuing state of uncertainty.
He additionally suffered significantly throughout court docket hearings. There was one decide who went out of his method to forestall him accessing a correct defence. We needed to change attorneys a number of instances and plenty of of them have been persecuted for defending my father.
My brother and I labored to maintain the newspaper afloat, despite the fact that a number of journalists have been compelled into exile. A number of months in the past we managed to get my father launched to deal with arrest, however his case continued to be filled with irregularities and a month later the advantage of home arrest was lifted. We’re nonetheless ready for the appeals court docket to evaluate the choice, however it’s seemingly he should return to jail this week or subsequent. My father continues to be preventing for his freedom and a good trial to show his innocence.
How can the worldwide neighborhood assist?
The worldwide neighborhood has performed an important function in the entire course of. We have been in a position to get my father out of jail largely due to stress from organisations resembling Amnesty Worldwide, CIVICUS, the Committee to Shield Journalists, Freedom Home, Reporters With out Borders and others who spoke out and mobilised.
As a household, we’ve all the time felt supported. We are actually awaiting the decision of the amparo attraction – a petition to guard constitutional rights, which might permit my father to proceed his wrestle from house. This may be perfect, though we’re nonetheless awaiting a closing choice.
The worldwide neighborhood should proceed to defend human rights and freedom of expression and assist the media, notably in international locations the place corruption and impunity prevail.
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Guatemala: ‘Corrupt elites see defenders of justice as a risk to their pursuits and attempt to silence them’ Interview with Virginia Laparra 30.Aug.2024
Guatemala: ‘Disregard for the need of the folks expressed on the poll field is the best potential insult to democracy’ Interview with Jorge Santos 13.Jan.2023
Guatemala: ‘Our democracy is in danger within the fingers of political-criminal networks’ Interview with Evelyn Recinos Contreras 04.Jul.2023
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