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GUATEMALA: Journalists Face Threats Over Report on Candidate

Inés Benítez

GUATEMALA CITY, Nov 2 2007 (IPS) - “Where are you? Hurry up, we’re waiting for you!” barked the voice on the telephone. Guatemalan journalist Enrique Castañeda had just finished writing an investigative article on rightwing presidential candidate Otto Pérez’s alleged links with organised crime, and this was the first phonecall he received.

Castañeda and Hilda Mérida, both journalists for the newspaper El Periódico, reported the incident to the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, requesting protection because they feared reprisals over their investigation. They also asked the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) for protection, a copy of the Oct. 27 complaint says.

“The political timing is awkward, but it would be irresponsible to keep silent. We are concerned about our own safety and that of our families,” Castañeda told IPS.

The investigative report, which El Periódico decided not to publish, reached the conclusion that there were links between Pérez, of the rightwing Patriotic Party (PP), and a person suspected of belonging to an organised crime group, Castañeda said.

The journalist said that the anonymous phonecalls were intimidating, but were not explicit death threats, and that he had no way of knowing who made them. Castañeda handed over documents and tapes to the Ombudsman’s office which he said proved the conclusions of his investigation.

His report, which was seen by IPS, states that “Edwin Alfredo Mendoza Matta, one of the persons who has been indicated as having links to organised crime, has been a member of the PP since Aug. 27, 2002, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and is one of the financiers of the PP.”

In this Sunday’s presidential runoff election, Álvaro Colom of the centre-left National Union of Hope (UNE), who won the first round on Sept. 9 with 28 percent of the vote, is running against Pérez, who took 23.5 percent.

According to a poll published on Friday by the newspaper Siglo XXI, Pérez is preferred by 52.6 percent of voters, compared to 47.4 percent who said they would vote for Colom.

Gonzalo Marroquín, the chairman of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, told IPS that when he received a copy of the journalists’ complaint, he asked the Presidential Human Rights Commission to take precautionary measures on their behalf.

“Although we do not yet have the details and background of this case, because of the turbulent situation of political violence we thought it prudent to adopt precautionary measures, at least until the elections are over,” said Marroquín, who is the editor of the newspaper Prensa Libre.

The Guatemalan media have paid very little attention to the reported incident.

Castañeda’s anonymous phonecalls began on Oct. 24. He suspects that he is being watched. Once Mérida answered the phone, and she also received a threatening message.

“We wanted to put on record that this kind of intimidation has arisen because of our work. We do our jobs, and we are proud of doing so,” said Castañeda.

In response to questions, retired General Pérez said this week that he is completely against such harassment, and asked the authorities to investigate the case.

“We do not support threatening anybody,” said the candidate, who added that he hoped an investigation would get to the bottom of the matter.

The election campaign has been extremely violent, with over 50 candidates, activists and family members killed. It has also been marked by high levels of verbal aggression between the presidential hopefuls, who have exchanged insults and denigrating remarks.

The non-governmental Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy (SEDEM) issued a communiqué on Wednesday criticising acts of intimidation directed at journalists, “who are being harassed and threatened for exercising their right to inform and investigate.”

SEDEM called for the case to be cleared up, because “it weakens our democracy even further, particularly when we are in the midst of an electoral process in which our authorities for the next four years will be chosen.”

Other journalists have also reported being threatened during the campaign.

In late August, three reporters for the news programme “Contacto Informativo” on the Satélite 16 cable TV station, which is broadcast from the town of El Progreso in Jutiapa, in the southeast, were told they would be killed if they ever mentioned the local mayor on air again in their election coverage.

And on Sept. 11, equipment was stolen from the Nuevo Mundo radio station on Cerro Alux, a hill on the outskirts of the capital, temporarily interrupting their programming, according to the latest issue of the magazine Sala de Redacción.

In a communiqué this week, the Association of Guatemalan Journalists (APG) criticised “these practices, which we thought belonged to the past.”

The APG deplored the fact that El Periódico had not published the story by Castañeda and Mérida, and demanded that the authorities “provide our threatened colleagues with whatever protection is necessary to guarantee their safety.”

Alfonso Gumucia, a journalist who specialises in communication for development, said that media coverage of the campaign “has emphatically demonstrated which political interests the media support.”

“Investigative journalism is very difficult to find in Guatemala,” he said. “The media have not been up to the task of asking candidates the hard questions, and instead they have been accommodating and given them an easy ride.”

Pérez has alleged that Colom received financing from drug trafficking mafias, while the UNE candidate has pointed out that his rival was an army officer during the 1960-1996 civil war that left over 200,000 dead, mainly rural indigenous civilians.

With a population of 13 million, and an official poverty rate of 51 percent (although unofficial estimates put the figure at around 80 percent), Guatemala has suffered an increasing spiral of violence, involving youth gangs and drug trafficking, while organised crime has penetrated state institutions.

Analysts consulted by IPS predict that the abstention rate on Sunday will be even higher than in the first round, when it was over 40 percent.