Judge orders jailed Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora returned to house arrest

GUATEMALA CITY — A judge ordered Thursday that Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora be returned to house arrest again while awaiting trial after spending nearly a year in jail in his latest stint of incarceration.

Zamora, the 69-year-old founder of El Periodico newspaper, had spent more than two years behind bars awaiting trial before a judge granted him house arrest in October 2024. Prosecutors immediately appealed and won rulings that sent him back to jail in March 2025.

Zamora had been imprisoned since July 2022, when he was charged with money laundering, amounting to around $38,000, and in June 2023 he was sentenced to six years in prison. The sentence was overturned by an appeals court because of errors in the process.

The journalist and free press advocates maintain that the prosecution is revenge for the investigative work of his newspaper against the administration of ex-President Alejandro Giammattei.

Current President Bernardo Arévalo last year called the prosecution “absolutely spurious” and said it was another example of the Attorney General's office prosecuting people who reported corruption.