“Enough! Criminalizing those who tell the truth!” In solidarity with Nelton Rivera of the Prensa Comunitaria in Guatemala
Rights Action gives thanks for the hugely important work of Prensa Comunitaria and condemns this latest attack on real journalism.
“The attitude, professionalism and rigour of Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda have made them irreplaceable media for understanding the whole current hijacking of democracy in Guatemala.”
While the executive branch of Guatemala, headed by President Arevalo, tries to bring about minimal, long overdue, reforms and changes in Guatemala, they are blocked at every important step by the “traditional elites” (often referred to as the Pact of the Corrupt) that control the judicial and legislative branches of government, the military and police, mainstream media, and they are –of course– the same wealthy elites that have long controlled Guatemala’s exploitative “open for global business” economy.
In this context, this attack is occurring against the Prensa Comunitaria, the most balanced source of daily news and analysis in the country.
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Solidarity with the Prensa Comunitaria in Guatemala
From the moment it began operating, the Guatemalan digital media outlet Prensa Comunitaria focused on exposing the illegal and unjust situations experienced by communities under threat from companies and agents of the State, providing timely information on the dispossession and the forms of organization set up to oppose them.
For this reason, defamation, persecution and threats from those who saw their impunity exposed have been part of the history of Prensa Comunitaria, attacks that would later also be suffered by its sister publication, the feminist magazine Ruda Ruda.
Throughout more than ten years of work, several journalists from these media outlets have suffered criminal persecution, have been imprisoned, beaten and have even lost their lives in the exercise of journalism. Some have had to leave their homes and even the country for doing their job, for showing society the ways in which “development” and “democracy” are experienced in their communities.
When what was known in Guatemala as the “Pact of the Corrupt” took shape, Prensa Comunitaria continued its mission by providing timely information on the actions of this group that, through the Attorney General of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Consuelo Porras, have perverted justice and the rule of law in Guatemala, turning them into a bargaining chip for the highest bidder and crushing anyone who stood in their way.
In recent years, the number of legal practitioners, journalists and human rights defenders who have suffered spurious legal proceedings, unjust imprisonment and dehumanising exile has risen scandalously.
The attitude, professionalism, rigour and capacity to generate information of Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda have made them irreplaceable media for understanding the whole current process of the hijacking of democracy in the different territories of Guatemala.
From the fraudulent elections in the USAC to the current continuous destabilization maneuvers, including the elections of 2023 and the resolute popular action against the attempted electoral theft, everything that has happened has been narrated, analyzed, commented on, and documented by the team of these media outlets.
For this reason, the teams of Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda have been in the crosshairs of those who use power for their own benefit, twisting the law to silence criticism, and the persecution has grown in recent months, culminating in a direct threat from an anonymous source who tends to anticipate the spurious and punitive actions of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The image of Nelton Rivera together with that of José Rubén Zamora behind bars is no coincidence: it suggests a similarity between the imprisonment of the owner of El Periódico and that of Nelton, one of the founders of Prensa Comunitaria. This constitutes a clear threat to silence our colleague and, what is more, the media outlet.
For all these reasons, we express our support and solidarity with Nelton Rivera and the whole team that makes the publications of Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda possible, in the hope that they will continue to keep us informed of what is happening in Guatemala.
We demand that the Guatemalan authorities stop passively or actively protecting the criminal and unpunished actions of those who have hijacked the country's legal system, and that they provide the means for the free expression of thought instead of restricting it.
We urge Guatemalan society, women and men, Mayans, Xinca, Garifuna and mestizos, young people and children, dissidents and diversities, not to lose sight of the situation in the country and to resort to critical analysis in order to act in defense of the interests of all.