Guatemala paper stops print edition after president’s arrest

All of the reporters at El Periodico have been let go

The prominent Guatemalan investigative newspaper “El Periodico” announced Wednesday it is stopping its print edition, after the government arrested the paper’s president.

José Rubén Zamora was arrested in July and charged with money laundering and extortion. Zamora has overseen dozens of investigations into corruption during his leadership at El Periodico since the paper was founded in 1996.

All of the paper’s reporters have been let go, and it is not clear how it can continue with digital editions only. The government has withdrawn advertising and has allegedly pressured businesses to do the same.

“It has been 30 years of struggle against corruption and impunity, against governmental abuses and terrorism, in favour of freedom, transparency and accountability,” Zamora wrote in a final editorial, datelined from the prison cell where he is being held.

The closure of the print edition came on Guatemala’s “Day of the Journalist.”

Guatemala’s chief prosecutor has been criticized by the government of the United States, accusing him of blocking corruption investigations and instead pursuing the prosecutors and judges who carried them out.

Mario Recinos, president of the Guatemalan Association of Journalists, said reporters have to operate “amid limits on the freedom of expression, harassment, criminalization of journalism and judicial persecution.”

Recinos said five Guatemalan journalists have been forced into exile under the administration of President Alejandro Giammattei because of legal persecution.

The United States government has sharply criticized the weakening of anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala and last year cancelled the U.S. visa of Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who had been pursuing former prosecutors who conducted corruption investigations.

José Rubén Zamora was arrested in July and charged with money laundering and extortion