In Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez, south of Guatemala City, two journalists blamed the local mayor for threatening and intimidating them, and being physically and verbally aggressive, reported the Center for Informative Reports of Guatemala Centro de Reportes Informativos de Guatemala (CERIGUA in Guatemala)..
Danilo López, correspondent for the newspaper Prensa Libre, said the harassment is a result of a July 13 article about corruption linked to the mayor.
During the last week of July, the mayor assaulted the reporter when López went to the mayor's office for an interview about his re-election. The mayor even offered the reporter money not to publish the article, reported Prensa Libre.
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On Aug. 4, the reporter again was intimidated by a bodyguard at the local government offices, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish) said.
Ángel Ruiz, correspondent for the newspaper Nuestro Diario, said he also was insulted by the mayor's supporters that same day. Ruiz said he was told that the mayor gave the bodyguards instructions to physically attack the reporters if they showed up.
