Jose Ruben Zamora: I have essentially been kidnapped'

"Zamora receives this newspaper in the quiet living room of his home, in an affluent neighborhood of the capital, a spacious house surrounded by vegetation that has once again become his refuge after leaving the 12-square-meter cell bartolina, he calls it that he occupied for more than a year. He walks with relief, but also cautiously: he knows that the Public Prosecutor's Office, led by the controversial Consuelo Porras, has him under surveillance and that his freedom is fragile."

"Zamora spent over 800 days in the Mariscal Zavala military prison, in a process that international organizations and some of the foreign press have described as political retaliation. I have essentially been kidnapped, he says. He was arrested in July 2022 on charges of blackmail, influence peddling, and money laundering. In June 2023, he was sentenced to six years for money laundering, fined 300,000 quetzales (about $37,500), and acquitted of the other charges."

"He says resentment doesn't consume him. He wants to regain weight, enjoy his children and grandchildren, and make sense of the years he has left. He doesn't know if he'll ever run a media outlet again, or if the system that imprisoned him will ever lose power. He has only one certainty: that one day he will be a free man. In Guatemala, that conviction sounds almost like an act of faith."

Jose Ruben Zamora, 69, was granted house arrest after spending over 800 days in Mariscal Zavala military prison. He was arrested in July 2022 on charges of blackmail, influence peddling, and money laundering; in June 2023 he received a six-year sentence for money laundering, a 300,000 quetzales fine, and acquittal on other counts. Appeals courts have overturned rulings and ordered retrials; the Prosecutor's Office appealed a recent house arrest decision. Zamora lives in a spacious home under surveillance and describes his detention as essentially a kidnapping. He aims to regain health, spend time with family, and hopes for eventual freedom.

Read at english.elpais.com