Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora is released after two years in prison

Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora was released from prison on Saturday after more than two years in custody. He will now serve house arrest as part of a legal process rejected by human rights groups and the international community. Zamora left the Mariscal Zavala military prison, located in the north of Guatemala City, where he has been held since July 29, 2022. He was charged by the controversial Guatemalan prosecutor’s office with alleged extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

“I feel very satisfied and happy with human solidarity,” Zamora, wearing a white shirt and blue pants, told reporters waiting outside the prison. Zamora was accused by prosecutors – whose leaders have been sanctioned by Washington because they are considered corrupt and anti-democratic – of running his newspaper El Periodicopublished cases of corruption involving the previous right-wing government of Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024).

“The first thing I will do when I get home is talk to my whole family,” the 68-year-old journalist said, smiling and expressing gratitude that the public has “never” let him down. “If I had been alone, I would have died,” added Zamora, who also said that now, under house arrest, he can finally “get eight hours of sleep.”

Judge Erick García granted him house arrest on Friday, stating that “for human rights reasons, the period of preventive detention has exceeded the limits.” After leaving prison, Zamora was taken in a police-escorted van to his home in the southern part of Guatemala City, where he will defend himself against the outstanding charges against him.

On June 14, 2023, a court sentenced him to six years in prison for money laundering, but the verdict was annulled and the trial must be repeated. Dozens of civilians waited for him outside the military base on Saturday. Berta Méndez, a 61-year-old auditor, said the journalist’s imprisonment “has affected everyone.”

In Guatemala, “there is no freedom of expression, our actions are limited, and I believe the country really deserves and needs a change,” Méndez told reporters. Zamora’s detention has been criticized by the United States and other countries, the international press and human rights organizations, and by Guatemala’s president himself, Bernardo Arévalo.

Zamora is considered a ‘prisoner of conscience’ by Amnesty International and in July the Colombian Gabo Foundation awarded him the Gabo 2024 Prize for Excellence. After almost ten months of Zamora’s captivity, El Periodicothe newspaper he founded in 1996 ceased publication on May 15, 2023. The newspaper had received several awards, including the Outstanding Media award at the 2021 King of Spain International Journalism Awards.