Zamora’s house and the offices of the diary were raided last Friday by agents from the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption of the Public Ministry on an alleged case of blackmail, influence peddling and money laundering, and the staff was held for more than 10 hours.

As a result, the journalist was sent to provisional prison on charges as of yet not clarified, since the Public Ministry speaks of a “reserved investigation.”

Since the capture of Zamora amid a large police and press deployment, national and international organizations have denounced what they consider to be yet another blow to the freedom of expression by the government of Giammattei.

Organizations defending human rights, personalities and institutions issued statements expressing their rejection of the Ministry’s actions, completely subordinated to the Foundation Against Terrorism.

Zamora and his newspaper are strong opponents of the Giammattei government, having published a number of reports on corruption within the Executive and the Public Ministry, of which Attorney General Consuelo Porras, also questioned, is in charge.

The Episcopal Conference of Guatemala expressed its concern on Sunday at “a fact in which, regardless of the reasons given, freedom of the press in the country ends up being de facto attacked and an atmosphere of anxiety and fear is generated in the social media”.

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