Guatemalan journalist Lucía Escobar received threats from members of a local security committee after publishing an article on the forced disappearance of a young person in the tourist town of Panajachel, in the western part of the country, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish).
Security committees, explained IPYS, are neighborhood organizations that often overstep their authority tyrannize the people they're assigned to protect.
Escobar wrote that there were 30 complaints against the "hooded ones" for crimes ranging from abuse of authority, torture and kidnapping, to assassinations, social cleansing and summary executions. The news site Plaza Pública reported that a paramilitary group known as the "hooded ones" was at the root of these crimes and enjoys impunity for its actions.
In response to the allegations, Juan Manuel Ralón of the accused security committee sought to discredit the journalist on Canal 10 television, accusing her of using and trafficking drugs, reported the newspaper elPeriódico, where the original article was published.
"If the next person to sleep at the bottom of the world's most beautiful lake with stones tied to her body is me, you'll know who to blame," wrote the reporter and host for Radio Ati.
