José Rubén Zamora

José Rubén Zamora Marroquín (born August 19, 1956) is the founder of two Guatemalan newspapers: Siglo Veintiuno ("21st Century") in 1990, and El Periódico ("The Newspaper") in 1996. He has been threatened and attacked on several occasions for his work, including being held hostage in his home in 2003 and being kidnapped and beaten in 2008.

He received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University in 1994 and an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 1994. In 2000, he was named one of 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th century by the International Press Institute.

Early career

Zamora began working as a reporter in La Hora ("The Hour"), a newspaper owned by his family, when he was 17. He earned degrees in industrial engineering and business administration, and in 1986, founded ANC, a documentary and news production company in 1986.

Siglo Veintiuno

In 1990, Zamora founded his first newspaper, Siglo Veintiuno. The paper advocated judicial and tax reforms, and reported on dangerous subjects including narcotics smuggling, human rights issues, guerrilla groups, and corruption in the government of President Jorge Serrano. As a result, Zamora and the staff received death threats and were subject to physical attacks.

Rubén Zamora

Rubén Zamora Rivas is a social democratic politician in El Salvador. He was a member of the cabinet of the Salvadoran government following the October 15, 1979 coup, but he resigned in early 1980 to protest the escalation of repression as the horrific civil war was breaking out. His brother, Mario, was serving as Attorney General when he was assassinated by a right wing death squad on February 23, 1980. After resigning from government, Rubén Zamora helped found the Frente Democrático Revolucionario (FDR) in April 1980.

After some time in exile, Rubén Zamora returned to El Salvador in November 1987 and helped to found the Convergencia Democrática (CD), a center-left electoral coalition that, still in the midst of the civil war, competed in the 1989 elections. Its willingness to compete marked an attempt to reestablish a peaceful center-left. In the first presidential election following the Salvadoran civil war in 1994, Zamora was the presidential candidate for the leftist coalition that included the former guerrilla Farabundo Marti Natioanal Liberation Front. He finished in second place with 25% of the vote. In subsequent years he has run for office with various incarnations of center-left parties, such as the Centro Democratico Unido (CDU - United Democratic Center). During the 1990s, he served as Vice President of the National Assembly and as a member of the National Peace Commission, and he founded and led the Centro Democrático Unido party. Zamora has taught political science at the University of El Salvador, Universidad Centroamérica, Universidad San Carlos, and Universidad Rafael Landivar (both in Guatemala), Essex University, and Stanford University. He has published many works on Salvadoran politics, including El Salvador, heridas que no cierran: Los partidos políticos en la post-guerra, and La izquierda partidaria salvadoreña: Entre la identidad y el poder.