A newspaper’s closing deals are a blow to a nation’s democracy
“There was a lot of excitement when I went to the editorial office,” said Mr. Aceituno, who oversaw the newspaper’s cultural coverage and Sunday edition. “We were together, and there was also a context where people defended freedom of speech.”
As part of Guatemala’s return to democracy, an international panel of investigators, begun in 2013 and supported by the United Nations, has uncovered widespread corruption targeting the country’s elite, leading to charges against former presidents and ministers , legislators, judges and business owners.
For elPeriodico and other independent media, it was a moment of optimism that didn’t last long.
Progress in the fight against corruption in Guatemala has suffered setbacks in recent years, and independent judges and prosecutors have been targeted by recent governments. Since 2018, 35 judges, anti-corruption prosecutors and their lawyers have gone into exile.
ElPeriodico’s investigations into abuses of power and corruption under various governments have regularly put it in the government’s crosshairs.
Over the last 10 years it has been the subject of many tax audits by the tax authorities. Mr. Zamora, an internationally acclaimed journalist who won an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, has faced dozens of government indictments, including a dozen pending claims filed by a former president and vice president.
Now the country is approaching presidential elections in June amid concerns that opposition candidates will not be given a fair chance, according to international organisations.
And there will be at least one less news media outlet around to cover the race.
The front page of elPeriodico’s edition of last Sunday was a report on nepotism in one of Guatemala’s largest hospitals, where important posts were assigned to relatives of the director. On Monday, its final day, the newspaper’s website led an investigation into the fact that the country’s electoral authority bought equipment from a company owned by a congressman.
“What is disappearing is the idea that freedom of expression is the basis of democracy,” said Mr. Aceituno. “We like to be a metaphor for what is happening in Guatemala.”