Guatemalan Newspaper El Periódico Ceases Print Edition After Being Targeted by Government
HAVANA TIMES – In Guatemala, the prominent investigative newspaper El Periódico has shut down its print edition after months of attacks and harassment from the right-wing government of President Alejandro Giammattei. The paper’s president and founder, José Rubén Zamora, remains in pretrial detention after he was arrested in July, accused of money laundering and extortion — charges denounced by human rights and press freedom groups as political retaliation over exposés of government corruption.
El Periódico was founded in 1996. It’s unclear how it will survive with just an online edition and a reduced staff. In a final editorial column written from his prison cell, Zamora said, “It has been 30 years of struggle against corruption and impunity, against governmental abuses and terrorism, in favor of freedom, transparency, and accountability.”