José Rubén Zamora expands complaint over digital harassment and threats

Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín has expanded his complaint before the Public Ministry, alleging a coordinated digital harassment campaign and death threats against him and his family. Zamora reported that a network of over 100 anonymous social media accounts has been targeting his family, including his son, following the recent murder of attorney and former anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa.

Zamora highlighted the use of the phrase “viaje a la playita” (trip to the little beach) as a coded death threat, noting its prior use against Solórzano Foppa. To support his claims, he cited an academic study from the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, which analyzed more than 670,000 interactions on X (formerly Twitter) and identified patterns of organized harassment and the leaking of confidential judicial information.

The journalist, founder of the defunct newspaper elPeriódico, is currently under house arrest after spending more than three years in military prison. He has called on his colleagues to resist self-censorship and urged authorities to investigate these digital structures before further violence occurs.