The Arbitrary Arrest of Jose Ruben Zamora:  A Discredited Justice and an Attempt to Silence Journalists in Guatemala By Sandra Xinico Batz La Hora, Guatemala, July 31, 2022

Jose Ruben Zamora

 

They will not silence us!

By Sandra Xinico Batz

Information is power, that is why the attack on independent journalism is political, because it has the complete intention of preventing society from accessing information, which allows it to have tools to form a criterion or opinion based on real data and mainly that this drives it to take a position (action) in the face of the chaotic situation of the country.

Harassment, harassment, criminalization are part of the actions that the colonial state promotes against independent journalism, for which it uses institutionality with the aim of instilling fear and thus keeping the population under control.

It is 7 a.m. today, July 30 (2022), and el Periódico workers continue to be held in the facilities of this media that for more than 12 hours has been registered even though the servile prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche, has declared that the detention of José Rubén Zamora was not linked to his work as a journalist but as a businessman; one more of the string of lies that this government blatantly wants to make believe, even though everything that has happened since yesterday with the arbitrary arrest of Zamora shows that it is a political persecution, driven against him by the investigative work that this media generates and that greatly bothers the government because it puts it in evidence.

Unfortunately, this is yet another case of criminalization of the many that this government has promoted against independent media and journalists, which shows that it is a systematic attack that is promoted by the State to protect itself and the criminals with whom in collusion they impoverish this country more and more every day.

The way in which José Rubén Zamora has been arrested, after the raid of his house and the media he directs, is symbolic since it wants to send a message of intimidation, of anxiety to other journalists and media who the government seeks to "punish" so that they stop carrying out the work of informing and communicating from the truth and ethics.

It seeks to impose silence by force; we are facing a State that constantly resorts to the use of institutions and resources to persecute those it considers its "detractors". This is the type of democracy applied by the colonial state, which only knows how to violate, steal and criminalize in order to impose itself.

It is the dictatorship of a colonial-servile model that borders on the unheard of, which cares about nothing more than continuing to loot, that dances to the sound that they touch it, that yesterday was "pro-Russia", today it is "pro-Ukraine" and there will always be a tomorrow that will not cease to surprise us because to steal go that they are creative; I wish our misfortune could end only like this, however, this model will not change on its own.

Now more than ever it is up to us to use our voice, share the word, continue to break the media circle in which they want to have us locked up and locked up, counteract fear by breaking the silence.

They will not silence us! - The Hour (lahora.gt)

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Discredited justice

By  Redacción La Hora  - 30 July, 2022

The capture of José Rubén Zamora executed yesterday by the FECI occurs within the framework of a massive deterioration of our justice system which, in itself, makes there are more doubts than answers, especially when a reservation is alleged that allows them to keep the detainees in prison without explaining the facts of which they are accused. But especially when, publicly, it is evident that the Foundation Against Terrorism not only had access to information about the case, despite the "reservation", but that the judge who issued the arrest warrant had links in the past with the organization directed by Ricardo Méndez Ruiz.

La Hora has always maintained that no one is superior to the law and that we all have to be held accountable for our actions, regardless of the social, economic, political or professional status of the unions. But we have also said that the administration of justice has to be absolutely transparent and that everyone, absolutely everyone, has the right to fair, objective and impartial trials in which the facts and the respective evidence are discussed.

This requires probate and legitimate administrators of justice, characteristics that do not exist in our country, where the constitutional mandate to elect magistrates of Chambers and the Supreme Court has not even been fulfilled, a context that makes citizen suspicions about the case of José Rubén Zamora more notorious, because people understand it with a blow to freedom of expression.

When the justice system lends itself to inventing cases and legitimizing absurd demands, to the point of accusing journalists who publish news about corruption that annoy some officials of violence against women, doubt is reasonable and that should force the authorities to be transparent in the formulation of charges, clearly explaining the details of the case, as was done in the times of the previous FECI and the CICIG, to clear any doubt about the motivations of the processes.

The judicial reserve is important when a case is under investigation and evidence has to be collected, but once an arrest occurs it is obligatory that the accused are duly informed of the facts for which they were arrested and they can transfer the information to the public. La Hora, of course, announces that its spaces are open so that José Rubén Zamora's lawyers can use them to detail the meaning of his defense, not because of a simple gesture of union solidarity, but because we are living really difficult conditions due to the deterioration of the justice system, which has been highlighted by entities such as Human Rights Watch this week.

Due process is a fundamental right of every person who is prosecuted and the times of those courts of special jurisdiction should not return as a result of a manipulation of the concept of reservation of cases. José Rubén Zamora has the right to exercise all the means of defense that the law grants to prove his innocence, but more than that it is the accusing entity, the MP that generates so little trust, which must prove beyond doubt the guilt of the accused.

Freedom of expression, however annoying it may be, cannot be trampled underfoot by legal tricks and surely the international community is taking note of what is happening in Guatemala and that makes us look so much like Nicaragua.

Discredited Justice - La Hora

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