Guatemala: Twitterevolution, "YouTube Sedition," and Deepening Political Crisis

A quick recap of updates this morning on the political crisis in Guatemala follows. Previous posts linked at the bottom.

* Yesterday, Guatemalan I.T. worker and Twitter user Jean Anleu (shown above / photo: Surizar) was raided by police, arrested, charged with inciting "financial panic," fined US $6500 (more than the average Guatemalan makes in a year), and sentenced to detention to be followed by house arrest. Supporters created a blog with information about his case, and are continuing what some describe as a "Twitterevolution" in Guatemala, using the hashtag #escandalogt and raising money by PayPal for his release. Anleu's case is the first of its kind in Central American history.

* One of Jean Anleu's Twitter (and real-life) geek friends, "Manolo," says,

Fundraising from abroad to secure his release is being received in my personal PayPal account ([e-mail]) For people in Guatemala we have an accout of a Jean's relative G&T Bank, account # 39-4478-4 (Jhenny Gonzalez). We are going out to the courthouse in Guatemala City right now, since the family got a loan from Jean's employers for the rest of the required amount, so, we are planning to release him within hours. I'll keep Boing Boing updated on this. More here.

UPDATE, May 15, 12pm PT: Manolo emails us:

The good news is that @jeanfer is about to be free. He and his family now have to pay back the money, but he'll be released in a few hours. He was able to post a tweet from my PC before leaving for the detention center, where he has to do some paperwork and wait till tonight to be released.

Below, @jeanfer's "freedom tweet," sent about an hour ago from @manolo's computer.

* Guatemalan photojournalist James Rodriguez has published a photo-essay documenting protests in Guatemala calling for president Álvaro Colom to resign in the wake of accusations he ordered the assastination of Rodrigo Rosenberg.

Those accusations came in the form of a posthumoustly-released YouTube video recorded by the whistleblower attorney before his murder on Mother's Day. Protests continue today in Guatemala City over Rosenberg's murder, and the fact that, as one Guatemalan Twitter user wrote, "Some guy on Twitter is in jail for one 96-character tweet, while assassins roam free." A large protest is planned for Sunday in the capital, with some participants planning to wear white, tape their mouths shut, and carry placards reading "I DON'T TALK, I TWITTER / WE ARE ALL @JEANFER."

* Street vendors are selling bootleg DVDs of Rosenberg's "death message" video (screengrab at left) which has spread virally on YouTube. One of these street vendors, José Encarnación Leiva Marroquín, was arrested by the Guatemalan police. For the act of distributing bootlegged YouTube videos, this man, who also works as a "chicken bus" driver's assistant, has been charged with "inciting sedition, revolution, or overthrow of the state.." Here's a PDF link. Update: Word on Twitter is that he has since been released, and charges dropped by the judge.

• [TooMuchModerationIsBad:Paradox]

  Beautiful effort against an oppressive regime.

  To see people suffer the way they have in Guatemala, and then reading of flickers of life in opposition, is enough to make one’s eyes well up with tears.

  
  How much more?
  
  Gracias a ti, Xeni, y al pueblo guatemalteco.
  
  Si’, se puede!

• [Tweeker]

  “The media” does in fact care, slightly. They favor a strong business friendly government is all.

• [pdmt99]

  OK, let’s recognize our hipster blogophile biases here. A street vendor was arrested for selling a video someone burned off of Youtube.

  Just like Jean Anleu Fernández, he deserves to be recognized by name as well,

  José Encarnación Leiva Marroquín

• [Anonymous]

  I donated $20 bucks. I’m sure enough Boing Boing readers can make a small donation to have him out by this afternoon.

• [JordanF83]

  My heart goes out to the Guatemalan people, who have been made to suffer at the hands of their government for too many decades.

  It’s inspiring to see Twitter causing a paradigm-shift for protests in Guatemala. Unfortunately, U.S. and international media seem largely uninterested in this story, as is always the case with Latin America (and an endless source of frustration for me).

  Thank you Xeni and Boingboing for covering this story. Por los guatemaltecos, justicia, paz, y suerte por su pais y su patria.

• [Ohhhsnap]

  I agree with JordanF83. It’s unfortunate the media seems to not care about this story.

  I have a feeling that Latin America will prove extremely important for the United States in the future and it is in our interest to get involved… But hey, that’s just a feeling.

• [GuidoDavid]

  It is amazing to see how technology can be opted to fight against tyranny in this way.

  I am sorry for the mess they are in now, and the one they still will be once this is over. But it gives me hope for the future that in a place where the Internet penetration is not high, this is still happening. We, together are powerful if we get organized. And now we have everyday better tools.

  Best of lucks to Guatemalans overthrowing this crappy government they have now and finding a not so lame one.

  Sean fuertes, hermanos. Resistan al Poder.

• [MrWednesday]

  http://bit.ly/6FQIQ

• [seanboing]

  I donated another $20. You should do the same.

• [Kurt]

  #3: I think you are right about Latin America being important in our future. For instance Bolivia has half the world’s easily available Lithium, needed for battery making: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008700362_lithium03.html

• [Anonymous]

  “I have a feeling that Latin America will prove extremely important for the United States in the future and it is in our interest to get involved… But hey, that’s just a feeling.”

  Yeah, we’ve been ‘involved’ in Guatemala for decades (see Arbenz, United Fruit…) I’d be surprised if this Colom jerk wasn’t an American puppet.

• [Xeni Jardin]

  Good point PDMT, I’ll update the post.