Jailed Guatemalan Journalist to AP: ‘I Can Defend Myself, Because I Am Innocent’

05/24/2024

José Rubén Zamora has spent nearly two years locked in a dark 16 by 13-foot cell in a Guatemalan prison, allowed only one hour a day in the sunlight. 

The journalist’s money laundering conviction was tossed out, and last week a judge finally ordered his conditional release to await a new trial. But the 67-year-old founder of the newspaper El Periodico never made it out. Two more cases against him include detention orders. 

International press freedom organizations have labeled Zamora’s arrest and detention a political prosecution. Zamora concurs. He contends his legal problems were engineered by former President Alejandro Giammattei, who appeared many times in the pages of El Periodico accused of corruption. 

Read more here.