Journalists who fled Guatemala after being targeted for covering their former boss’s trial can now return following court rulings. But they worry the forces that drove them into exile are still in place.
It has been a little more than three years of uncertainty, fear, anger and, especially, disappointment for a group of former employees of Guatemala’s now-defunct news outlet elPeriódico(opens in new tab) who are living in exile because of their coverage of the case against their former boss, José Rubén Zamora.
During a Feb. 28, 2023, hearing against Zamora, the founder of elPeriódico, then-prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso asked a judge to open a criminal investigation into several journalists(opens in new tab) for “obstruction of justice,” a crime covered under organized crime law.
Monterroso’s argument was based on news articles and opinion columns published by elPeriódico related to Zamora’s now-annulled trial. Zamora was sentenced to six years in prison in a case that press freedom organizations questioned. According to prosecutors, the outlet’s coverage of the case had created a false, weak and negative image of then-Attorney General María Consuelo Porras.
“As a result, they, as prosecutors, can no longer investigate properly because there is a prejudice,” Wendy Geraldina López, an attorney with the organization Udefegua, which represents five of the journalists, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
Zamora, who is under house arrest, has faced charges since 2023(opens in new tab) including extortion, money laundering-related offenses and influence peddling. Many observers have described the legal proceedings as retaliation for his investigations into government corruption.
The journalists’ exile underscores the far-reaching impact of the Guatemalan government’s legal campaign against Zamora(opens in new tab). Before his arrest, Zamora had already faced decades of threats, persecution and acts of torture because of his journalism and the work of his news outlet.
López said a recent Constitutional Court decision closed the criminal case. Some of Zamora’s colleagues have already returned to Guatemala, but four remain in exile, afraid to return because of the lack of guarantees and protections.
During the 2023 hearing, authorities ordered investigations into journalists Denis Aguilar, Christian Velix, Alexander Valdez and Rony Ríos; elPeriódico director Julia Corado; former editor in chief Gerson Ortiz; and columnists Gonzalo Marroquín and Edgar Gutiérrez.
Once they learned that an investigation had been opened against them, international organizations contacted them to conduct a rapid risk assessment, Corado told LJR.
The assessment conducted by the organizations indicated that it would be better to leave the country because of the lack of judicial guarantees, Corado said. “It would’ve been very easy for them to issue arrest warrants and take us away the next day,” she said.
They all followed the advice and left the country. Corado and Ortiz left on March 2, 2023, through Costa Rica, and haven’t returned.
“It’s very unfair because you have done nothing outside the law other than your job. And that is why I was persecuted. I left the country under very difficult circumstances,” Corado said. “It was very hard, honestly. Terrible uncertainty.”
Corado, Ortiz and Rony Ríos, who spoke with LJR, agree on two things: They thought their exile would last a maximum of two months, and they had to do it alone. They did not have the resources to leave with their families.
For Ortiz, now in Europe, it was particularly surprising to find himself among those under investigation. Because he was an editor who did not sign articles, he did not think he was on the authorities’ radar.
“As an editor, I took care with the language, I made sure the data was accurate, I double-checked [everything] [...] and so I am being persecuted for taking care of those apparently harmless details,” Ortiz said.
Together with Corado, he founded EP Investiga(opens in new tab) in 2024, a news outlet with a team in Guatemala and in exile that seeks to continue elPeriódico’s legacy, but above all, to continue practicing journalism, he said.
“The first emotional reaction is one of absolute disappointment,” Ortiz said. “But at the same time, after processing it, it makes you realize that your work is still important, that telling things despite fear, despite even the consequences, is worthwhile. It makes political and critical sense.”
Ríos, who was assigned to cover some of Zamora’s hearings because of his experience covering courts, also is not entirely sure why he was linked to the legal case. He covered and wrote the stories as he did with many others.
In the court file, the journalists’ articles and columns are part of the evidence presented by prosecutors. Articles with headlines such as “Journalist José Rubén Zamora arrested and ‘elPeriódico’ offices raided,” “elPeriódico staff arrested by security forces,” “Zamora remains detained without a preliminary hearing,” “‘This is a setup by the president and the attorney general,’” and “New harassment against José Rubén Zamora” are among the many articles, editorials and columns that were included as evidence.
Also in the court file, prosecutors used terms such as “disinformation” and “false” to describe the texts. Ríos finds it strange that one of the texts marked as evidence was a story in which he reported that one of the audio recordings presented as evidence against Zamora could not be heard clearly. Prosecutors considered that description an attempt to discredit the charges against Zamora.
“You could not hear them. And other media outlets reported it,” Ríos insists.
Articles about how international organizations — such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Press Association — had spoken out against the case against Zamora were also presented as evidence of obstruction of justice by the journalists.
Ríos is currently in the United States after his asylum case was approved. He divides his time between writing articles for the independent Guatemalan outlet Prensa Comunitaria and working as a cook at a restaurant. He wants to return to his country and regrets the moments he has missed. He was unable to be there when his grandmother died and lives worried about his parents’ health.
These episodes caused Ríos to experience moments of anger and frustration toward those who led the judicial proceedings. “I couldn’t even stand to see them,” Ríos said.
The recent report “The Truth About Exile: Ethics, Criminalization and the Struggle for Justice in Guatemala”(opens in new tab) documents the persecution experienced by justice officials, human rights defenders and journalists since 2014.
Ortiz describes the three years of the case as a kind of “Sword of Damocles,” in which prosecutors’ goal was to silence them and send a message that other journalists could face the same fate.
López explains that the case should not have been pursued through the criminal justice system, but instead resolved through a special mechanism for matters related to freedom of expression. In January 2024, a judge ruled that the case could not continue in a criminal court. The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision before various courts, but all of them upheld it. In June 2026, the Constitutional Court closed the case.
“In other words, indirectly, they are telling us that we were indeed right all along,” López said. “They essentially used the justice system simply and solely to criminalize us, because they acknowledge that their requests never had a serious legal basis.”
Although the Constitutional Court’s decision and the change in attorney general(opens in new tab) open a window of hope for a return, Ortiz said the system as a whole hasn’t changed. Protections and guarantees are still needed to prevent further persecution, as well as recognition of the harm caused by the state and reparations for those whose lives and plans were disrupted.
“The state owes its citizens justice,” López said. “For them to return, they also need conditions, and I think those conditions, more than anything, should involve reparations for them, at least an apology.”
This article was translated with AI assistance and reviewed by Jorge Valencia
