Over the past year, the government of President Alejandro Giammattei has engaged in desperate attempts to silence independent voices and criminalize journalism in Guatemala. On July 29, 2022, Guatemalan authorities arrested José Rubén Zamora, a prominent investigative journalist and founder of the newspaper el Periódico. On June 14, 2023, after being held in solitary confinement and being forced to involve as many as nine lawyers to defend him, Zamora was convicted of money laundering and was sentenced to six years in prison. The attacks on Zamora serve as a stark testament to the erosion of freedom of speech and the criminalization of journalism in Guatemala, international groups and national civil society organizations call for justice in Zamora’s case and respect for the rule of law.

Learn more about Zamora’s case here.