UM panel to delve into 'trumped-up' charges against jailed Guatemalan editor

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Sergio R. Bustos
Published February 16, 2024 at 4:04 PM EST

The son of José Rubén Zamora, the Guatemalan newspaper editor who press freedom advocates say was wrongly imprisoned last year by top government officials, will join a panel of journalists and a congresswoman on Monday in Miami to talk about the case and its implications for the media in Guatemala and the rest of Latin America.

Jose Carlos Zamora will be part of a panel — “Freeing the Press in Guatemala” — that includes U.S. Rep. Norma J. Torres, D-California, Reporters Without Borders USA Executive Director Clayton Weimers and University of Miami journalism professors Sallie Hughes and Gregory Koger. Hughes is a veteran journalist who covered Latin America; Koger leads UM’s George P. Hanley Democracy Center.

. . .

Last June, Zamora was sentenced to six years in prison in a money laundering case that concluded following a trial that international press freedom groups decried as political persecution.

The three-judge panel convicted and sentenced the well-known journalist on a charge of money laundering that affected the national economy and stability of the financial system. The tribunal cleared Zamora of additional charges of blackmail and influence peddling.

The charges stemmed from Zamora, 66, asking a friend to deposit a $38,000 donation to keep the newspaper going rather than depositing it himself. Zamora has said he did so because the donor did not want to be identified supporting an outlet in the sights of then-President Alejandro Giammattei.

Zamora’s El Periodico newspaper was known as fiercely independent and published investigations about corruption in the administrations of Giammattei and his predecessors. Zamora’s work has been internationally recognized.

More:
https://www.wlrn.org/americas/2024-02-16/jose-ruben-zamora-guatemala-jailed-um-panel