Guatemala City. The Guatemalan president, Bernardo Arévalo, met on Monday with the released journalist José Rubén Zamora two days after leaving the prison where he was imprisoned for more than 800 days without a sentence.
The meeting was held on Monday afternoon at the journalist’s home, without calling the press and in an atmosphere “of frank and respectful dialogue with a focus on key issues for the future of the country,” said the Guatemalan presidency.
According to the government, Zamora shared his experience in prison for more than two years. The journalist has reported that he suffered humiliation during his imprisonment, which occurred for the most part during the government of former president Alejando Giammattei (2020-2024). The communicator remains under house arrest while the two proceedings against him are being heard.
“Both discussed country projects that contribute to the strengthening of democratic institutions, in particular, the role of journalism and freedom of expression in the construction of a more just and transparent Guatemala,” he said.
The presidency confirmed the meeting and sent a photograph to journalists in which Arévalo and Zamora can be seen hugging in the journalist’s room.
Both discussed the relevance of the journalist’s release “as an opportunity to end the political persecution in Guatemala and the release of those who still suffer from prison, the result of spurious investigations and arbitrary measures (by the prosecutor’s office),” he said in a message sent to the press.
The prosecution accuses the 68-year-old journalist in two different cases, one of them for money laundering in which he allegedly asked a friend to bank about $38,000 which, according to Zamora, was the product of a donation to El Periódico, the media outlet. of communication of which he was president. The outlet specialized in corruption issues and closed after the journalist’s arrest.
Zamora is recognized in the journalistic world for having presided over a media outlet that uncovered several cases of corruption in Guatemala.
Zamora’s defense has said that he himself did not bank 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 this case, but the sentence was annulled due to failures in due process. The court hearing that case gave him alternative measures to prison, but could not abandon it due to a second case against him.
In that second trial, prosecutors accuse Zamora of conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly lying in the first case against him. To this he added another accusation of falsifying documents for allegedly not signing the immigration tickets he used to leave the country.
Following the accusations against Zamora, the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation against eight journalists and columnists who wrote about his case and investigated judges and prosecutors for abuses of power. All eight are exiled.
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