His cruel and arbitrary detention continues two years later, revealing a judicial system corroded by the worst interests.
HAVANA TIMES – On Wednesday, August 28, six independent experts from the United Nations added their voices to the multiple and authoritative denunciations over the last two years, all decrying the arbitrary imprisonment of Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora. The UN group included Alice Jill Edwards, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
In a revealing report, they called on the authorities to urgently address the allegations of inhumane conditions suffered by the journalist during his long pre-trial detention. “We are seriously concerned that Mr. Zamora, 67, hasn’t received adequate medical treatment for his physical and mental conditions, thus endangering his life (…) The conditions that Mr. Zamora has been experiencing violate the absolute prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatments or punishments,” reads one paragraph of the report.
The larger problem is that although the Executive power, President Bernardo Arevalo, supports the demand (for better conditions and release), the journalist’s fate lies in the hands of those who head Guatemala’s judicial branch. These authorities have ignored the general clamor, in a display of total disrespect for justice.
Amnesty International declared Zamora a “prisoner of conscience” at the beginning of August 2024. For over 20 years, Zamora directed the now-extinct newspaper El Periodico. Un
