Security & Strategic Review - July 2026

On 8 June international press lobbies including US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hailed the decision under Guatemala’s new attorney general, Gabriel Estuardo García Luna, to drop all cases against journalists from shuttered investigative outlet elPeriódico. The cases were widely considered spurious and part of the targeting of independent journalists under García Luna’s predecessor, the discredited María Consuelo Porras (2018-2026). While prospects regarding press freedom have brightened in Guatemala, they are looking increasingly ominous elsewhere in the sub-region, as outlined in the annual report on press freedom by international NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released on 30 April which singled out El Salvador and Nicaragua, both ruled by authoritarian leaders, as particular cause for concern.