Podcasts News Reveal Guatemalas War on Journalists

Guatemalas War on Journalists

Published: July 15, 2023, 4 a.m.

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Reveal revisits a story produced in collaboration with a Guatemalan journalist who is now in prison. Jos\\xe9 Rub\\xe9n Zamora was jailed last summer after his newspaper, elPeri\\xf3dico, published more than 100 stories about corruption within Guatemala\\u2019s government.

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Corruption is a longstanding problem in Guatemala, and it\\u2019s intertwined with U.S. policy in Central America. At times, the U.S. has had a corrupting influence on Guatemalan politics; at others, it has supported transparency. This week\\u2019s show looks at the root causes of corruption and impunity in Guatemala and how they have prompted generations of Guatemalans to flee their country and migrate north.

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Veteran radio journalist Maria Martin takes us to Huehuetenango, a province near Guatemala\\u2019s border with Mexico. For decades, residents have been migrating to the U.S. to help support families struggling with poverty. We then connect the migration outflow to U.S. policy during the Cold War and its support of brutal dictatorships in Guatemala that were plagued by corruption.

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Then Reveal\\u2019s Anayansi Diaz-Cortes introduces us to a crusading prosecutor named Iv\\xe1n Vel\\xe1squez. In the early 2000s, Vel\\xe1squez was tasked with running an international anti-corruption commission in Guatemala, known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG. Its mandate was to root out corruption and improve the lives of Guatemalans so they wouldn\\u2019t feel compelled to leave their homes. Vel\\xe1squez had a reputation for jailing presidents and paramilitaries, but met his match when he went after Jimmy Morales, a television comedian who was elected president in 2015. Morales found an ally in then-U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration helped Morales dismantle CICIG.

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With CICIG gone, journalists were left to expose government corruption \\u2013 journalists like Zamora, who was arrested last summer on trumped-up charges. Diaz-Cortes speaks with Zamora\\u2019s son about his father\\u2019s arrest and the state of journalism in Guatemala.

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This is an update of an episode that originally aired in September 2020.

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