A journalist and publisher, a staunch critic of Guatemalan right-wing President Alejandro Yamate, was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday, ten days before the first round of elections to choose the successor to the head of state.

“I am innocent and [σ.σ. ο πρόεδρος Γιαματέι] he continues to be a thief,” Jose Ruven Zamora said after hearing the verdict in a Guatemalan court.

According to the prosecution, Mr. Zamora tried to launder an amount corresponding to about $37,500, “derived from extortion” against businessmen to whom he promised in exchange that information exposed to them would not be published.

The journalist countered that the amount came from the sale of a work of art which he proceeded to find funds for his newspaper, in financial difficulty.

For the publisher and founder of El Periódico, President Yamate and Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been blacklisted by the US as “corrupt” figures, completely fabricated the indictment to silence him and his newspaper after the publication of investigations for corruption cases involving the government.

Mr. Zamora, 66, made clear his intention to appeal and continue the legal battle to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR) if necessary.

The heaviest penalty

Prosecutor Rafael Kuruchitse also said he would appeal, as he sought the imposition of the heaviest penalties for each of the three counts – money laundering, extortion, exercising undue influence in return – in other words for the publisher to be sentenced to serve 40 years of imprisonment.

Arriving in court, with handcuffs on his wrists, the journalist, who has been in custody for almost eleven months, announced that his wife, Minayu Marroquin, left her former Guatemala, went to find the couple’s son who is in exile in the USA, to avoid capture.

Eight Journalists and columnists also face criminal charges in another pending case against Mr. Zamora: in this case, he is accused of attempting to obstruct a money-laundering investigation. Many of them have also left the country, taken refuge abroad.

The Journal, which was founded in 1996 by Mr. Zamora and had been publishing only in its digital edition since December, suspended all activity on May 15, citing “criminal prosecution and financial pressure” against it.

Sunday, June 25, sees the first round of Guatemala’s presidential election, the campaign for which has been poisoned by the exclusion of favored candidates, which has cast doubt on the impartiality of institutions: alleged maneuvers to keep the corrupt, authoritarian regime in power preferred by the elite of the Central American country.

For some analysts, the country is experiencing a contraction of democracy after the UN anti-corruption mission, CICIG, was prematurely terminated in 2019 at the behest of former President Jimmy Morales (2016-2020), who had been personally targeted.

CICIG was instrumental in uncovering high-profile corruption cases, including the one that led to the resignation and imprisonment of former president Otto Perez Molina in 2015.

After Mr. Yamatei took power, many corruption prosecutors who had cooperated with the UN mission were arrested or exiled.