Guatemala's lack of press freedom

The attention should rightfully be on the murdered journalists and the conditions under which all journalists in Guatemala, and the region more generally, operate. However, the Nic Wirtz piece for Americas Quarterly mentions something that might be important to this case and is terribly important as the US considers investing upwards of a billion dollars in the Northern Triangle.

According to local cable television presenter Marvin Israel Túnchez, who was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his arm and leg, López was the target of the assassination. López’s investigations in 2013 into public works in the department of Suchitepéquez had revealed 2.8 million quetzales ($368,000) worth of non-existent work.

“Journalism is one of the most dangerous jobs in Guatemala,” said Túnchez, who works for Canal 30, the same channel as Carlos Orellana, a journalist who was murdered in 2013.

Public works projects are where some of the region's real corruption takes place. It's why CICIG is needed and its responsibility amplified.

While Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador share certain characteristics, the violence carried out against journalists in Guatemala and Honduras seem to be much less, though no less troubling, in El Salvador.

Perez Molina and Baldetti back down for now

El Periódico's editor José Rubén Zamora Marroquín has been going after corruption allegations against Vice President Roxanna Baldetti and Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina in Guatemala for at least the last two years. Perez Molina filed a criminal complaint against him in November and Baldetti convinced a judge to authorize a restraining order against the editor in December. Perez Molina and Baldetti allege that Zamora's investigations had gone well beyond simply reporting and investigating on crminal wrongdoing. They accused him of blackmail, stalking and a variety of other offenses.

In December, a judge ordered Zamora to refrain from "disturbing or intimidating" the vice president and her family and then issued a six-month restraining order. This was an odd decision in that a came from a court that oversees gender-based crimes. Baldetti was arguing that his Zamora's writings were an attack against her because she was a woman. A more recent ruling ordered Zamora not to leave the country and to have his bank accounts frozen. Has anyone in the prosecutor's office moved on Zamora's allegations against Baldetti and OPM?

The entire situation has been an embarrassment for the president and the vice president, domestically and internationally. While it's not over, the president and the vice president have now dropped the criminal complaints against Zamora.

The situation reminds me of the president's December 2012 decision not to recognize the Inter-American Court of Human Rights rulings on cases pertaining to crimes against humanity and genocide that occurred before 1987 in Guatemala and that it would no longer pay reparations to victims who suffered prior to 1987. Domestic and international condemnation of the decision made Perez Molina walk that decision back a few weeks later but the damage had already been done.

The relationship between the press and the region's presidents sure seem to be at a low point - Perez, Funes, Ortega, Barrow, Martinelli, and Chinchilla. We'll give Hernandez a few weeks to get comfortable. Here's where each country scores and ranks in Freedom House's Freedom of the Press 2013.

One step forward and two steps back for Guatemalan media

Two employees of Exploraciones Mineras de Guatemala, S.A. (EXMINGUA), the Guatemalan subsidiary of Nevada-based mining company Kappes, Casssiday & Associates (KCA), were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for “threats and coercion” against independent journalists reporting on local resistance to a U.S.-owned gold mine during a November 2012 protest. The men can buy their way out of prison by paying $3 per day of their sentence.

Last week's sentencing follows an early October sentence of six months handed down against the ex-minister of Culture and Sports, Jerónimo Lancerio, for threatening journalist Sofía Menchú last March 7th.

These two sentences are important steps by the Guatemalan justice system to protect the growth of a free and independent media. However, Guatemala remains a dangerous place to practice journalism.

On Saturday night, Karina Rottman's bodyguard was shot and killed by two unknown gunmen. Rottman is the head of Guatemala's VEA Canal cable TV channel.

VEA Canal is noted for its analysis and criticism programs generally oriented against the administration of Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina.

The channel allocates TV time to opposition, mainly leftist, leaders, who issue their commentary and critiques of the government.

Apparently, this was the second attacks against Rottman's security detail in the last few weeks.

Two weeks ago, after meeting with Treasury officials in a capital restaurant, two of her bodyguards were beaten up by unknown attackers, she said, demanding that the authorities investigate and clear up the attacks.

There have been more than 80 attacks and threats against journalists in Guatemala so far this year. As I wrote in March, President Otto Perez Molina must do more to protect journalists and a free and independent media in Guatemala if he wants to improve the country's international reputation and gain access to greater international funding like a compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Obviously, it is not all the president but one has to start somewhere.