Sound of alarm in Guatemala

José Rubén Zamora, journalist and president of 'elPeriódico', after the first judicial hearing, this Wednesday in Guatemala City. LUIS ECHEVERRIA (REUTERS)

First it was justice and now, the press.

Guatemala glimpses a bitter horizon that shows the fear of the Government of President Alejandro Giammattei of any independent investigation into corruption and shows a dangerous point of no return in the process of decomposition of the institutions.

The latest episode has been the raid on Friday of the Editorial Office of

, the (frustrated) attempt to prevent the newspaper from being published by the police and, finally, the arrest of the founder of one of the media outlets most committed to controlling power, the award-winning and prestigious journalist José Rubén Zamora.

The harassment continued with the seizure of the newspaper's accounts, all after the publication of a series of complaints against officials and former officials linked to the president.

The Prosecutor's Office, controlled by the Executive, presented an accusation for an alleged crime of "money laundering" and on Wednesday the detainee appeared handcuffed in a session with the assistance of the press.

In the same act, the Prosecutor's Office added other accusations to two of the journalist's lawyers.

The president has launched a direct war against the critical voices of the press after having done so with justice.

Since 2020, when Giammattei took office, there have been more than 20 resignations of prosecutors and judges dedicated to investigating corruption and organized crime plots in the Central American country.

The trickle of resignations, to which the exile of these members of the judicial system has sometimes been added, has shown the harassment of officials and representatives of the public ministry.

This situation is not only extremely worrying, but also marks another turn of the screw in the collapse of the rule of law and of the efforts undertaken in recent years.

One of the decisive moments in this decline was the expulsion, ordered by the previous president, Jimmy Morales, of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a United Nations instrument that was launched in 2006 at the request of the country. to avoid the kidnapping of institutions by the military and corruption.

Giammattei promised when he won the elections that his priorities would be the fight against bad practices and the fight against unemployment and violence.

The expectations were that, after the catastrophic management of his predecessor, in the worst case he was going to tiptoe through a nondescript mandate.

Not so long ago Guatemala was an example in Central America for its fight against corruption, but today it is a country prostrated by inequality, poverty, crime, corruption and government attempts to silence complaints and critical voices.

The president must immediately cease his harassment of the press and prosecutors, and the first step should be the release of José Rubén Zamora.