The editor of the Guatemalan newspaper, El Periodico, fears the worst.
For the last 40 days, government inspectors have been going through the newspaper’s books, camped out in an office just across from the newsroom.
Editor José Rubén Zamora has been told their work is now finished and he is to be presented with their findings in the next few days.
Those findings could spell the end of El Periodico as a free and independent voice in a country where the state controls much of the media. It could also make life difficult for two other independent newspapers in the country.
The inspection came soon after Zamora published an article linking the government of President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera with the mafia.
Zamora claimed that the Portillo government was benefiting financially as a direct result of the acceptance of funds from mafia activities, including trafficking in narcotics, kidnapping and extortion.
The report was the culmination of eight years of research and said what many have privately suspected, but none was prepared to say — let alone publish.
The article named names and drew lines between the leaders of organised crime and some government and military heads.
In the article, Zamora claimed that, “Towards the end of the seventies … the army implemented an organization … to detect the import of war supplies destined for guerrilla movements in Guatemala. As time went by, this organization … extended its tentacles to invade other key government institutions that became the stage of successful criminal operations … Twenty years after inception, it has become a solid and vigorous institution … in the last general elections, it democratically took over the Executive Power and presently has controls over every string of actual power.”
Other newspapers reported on the El Periodico reports, spreading the story further.
It was then that the inspectors made their surprise visit and the relationship between the government and the press deteriorated.
Since publication, Zamora has been the subject of several legal suits by present and former government officers mentioned in the report. Some of his newspaper’s editorial staff have been summoned before ministers and statements taken.
Zamora, and El Periodico, have been the subject of repeated verbal attacks on television and in print. The country’s chief of taxes has gone on record to accuse the newspaper of tax fraud, without specifying any charges, either publicly or to El Periodico‘s management.
El Periodico is not alone. According to Zamora, the investigations into El Periodico‘s affairs mark a concerted effort to pressure other media outlets in the country.
On Monday, Jan. 13, another team of overseers and auditors arrived at the offices of Diarios Modernos, the editor of Nuestro Diario, and removed books and documents from the premises.
Three days later the newspapers, Prensa Libre, El Periodico and Nuestro Diario, publicly denounced the government’s harassment, efforts and tactics.
El Periodico has a circulation of 31,000, but is distributed only within Guatemala — although supporters of the newspaper post copies overseas to the Guatemalan community living in the western United States.
The paper is planning an online version, to launch in March, but the pressure of the government investigation has overshadowed that.
Zamora’s feeling was that El Periodico needed to have its voice heard beyond the print run and that a vehicle for free speech would be harder to silence if it were broadcast worldwide than if it were read only in the streets of Guatemala City.
If they do build a case to try to close the newspaper, it wouldn’t be the first time. In the past, the president has asked advertisers not to do business with the El Periodico, thereby adding pressure on the newspaper’s finances.
There is also the issue of personal safety. Two weeks ago. a large vehicle slammed the back of Zamora’s car and sped off. He can’t be sure if it was an accident or intentional, but this is a man who has, in the past, twice had grenades rolled under previous vehicles and the walls of his home peppered with machine-gun fire. He is continually worried about the safety of his family.
Zamora’s concern about press freedom in Guatemala has been written up in a detailed report he has prepared, on behalf of all independent press in the country (including El Periodico, Prensa Libre and Nuestro Diario) which he is submitting to the United Nations ‘Justice and the Freedom of Expression’ team alerting them to the situation.
FEB. 4 UPDATE: Zamora had lunch with the U.S. Ambassador in Guatemala. The Ambassador has spoken to the President, the Attorney General and the Chief of the Tax Department to express the U.S.G’s concern about pressure on El Periodico and has been assured it will end. The German and Canadian Ambassadors have met Zamora and shown support and are talking with the Guatemalan Government. The tax inspectors have not said anything more. There have been no charges. The TV attacks have ceased. El Periodico’s subscriptions have increased 90 percent and street sales up 1,000.
David Brewer is former managing editor of BBC News Online and CNN Interactive Europe, Middle East and Africa.
