A prominent Guatemalan newspaper editor who has overseen investigations into corruption was arrested, prompting denunciations on Saturday by politicians, anticorruption advocates and civic groups.
Prosecution agents arrested Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin at his home on Friday night, searching his residence, seizing telephones and accusing him of money laundering. Zamora Marroquin is a prize-winning journalist who heads the newspaper El Periodico.
“This is an orchestrated plan, where the aim now is not to pursue those who are corrupt, but rather opponents,” human rights advocate Eleonora Muralles said. “The strategy is to coopt the whole system and have judges — with serious doubts about their impartiality — put together cases and evidence against opponents.”
Photo: Reuters
Journalists on Saturday protested outside a courthouse where the case is being heard.
US Representative James McGovern wrote that he was “deeply concerned” by the detention.
“The judiciary is already decimated, is the Free Press next? Journalism is not a crime!” McGovern wrote on Twitter.
Zamora Marroquin has declared a hunger strike.
“I haven’t eaten anything nor drunk any water in 36 hours,” he said, speaking before a court hearing.
The US government has sharply criticized the weakening of anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala and last year canceled the US visa of Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been pursuing former prosecutors who had been conducting corruption investigations against officials.
Several former anti-corruption officials have fled the country. Now that effort appears to have extended to journalists.
Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei has been dismissive of US officials’ criticism of his attorney general and what they see as a backsliding in Guatemala on battling corruption.
The country’s new special prosecutor against impunity has been placed on a US list of people suspected of corruption or undermining democracy. He is accused of obstructing corruption investigations.
Giammattei’s government and prosecutors accelerated efforts started by his predecessor to undo a UN-backed anti-corruption campaign that put several top officials, including former presidents, behind bars. They say those prosecutions themselves were irregular.
Moreover, a number of the Guatemalans, including two Supreme Court magistrates, were allegedly involved in a scheme to stack the Supreme and Appellate Courts with corrupt judges, a US Department of State report said.
Separately on Saturday, Guatemalan military exchanged fire with the passengers of a vehicle as it approached the location of Giammattei’s entourage, an army spokesman said.
Military officials stopped the vehicle as it neared a checkpoint guarding the presidential delegation during a visit by Giammattei to the area of Huehuetenango, 300km east of Guatemala City, the spokesman said.
The occupants of the vehicle opened fire on the soldiers, who returned fire. Giammattei was about 2km away at the time.
One of the gunmen, who is Mexican, was injured in the confrontation, the government said in a statement.
The others fled in the vehicle toward the Mexican border about 80km, it added.
Four Guatemalans were later detained by the Mexican military, the Guatemalan government said. Two rifle grenades were also found over the border in Mexico.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS