Guatemala: Twitterer Released from Jail, Now Under House Arrest


Video Link (dialogue in Spanish).

Jean Ramses Anleu Fernández, the soft-spoken Guatemalan I.T. worker arrested for having "tweeted" a critical opinion about the assasination/bank corruption scandal that has shaken Guatemala this week, is released from jail.

In the video above, his pals — including a few who've checked in here on Boing Boing — set up a laptop in the jail holding area right after he's "checked out of his hotel suite," as @jeanfer puts it, and he makes his first "freed" post to Twitter.

Note that he is twittering while still handcuffed.

He is now sentenced to house arrest.

@jeanfer's employer put up a loan for the $6500 fine ordered by a Guatemalan judge. Supporters are collecting PayPal donations to repay it. (via Oscar Mota)

Meanwhile, massive protests are planned this weekend in response to the assassination of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg, who blamed Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom for his own anticipated murder in a posthumously released YouTube video.

In interviews today, Colom blamed powerful enemies for the scandal about claims he ordered Rosenberg's murder, as his administration cracks down on military abuses and drug gangs.

And meanwhile, we presume that José Encarnación Leiva Marroquín, the street vendor arrested for selling bootlegged DVDs of the Rosenberg YouTube video, is still in prison — with no internet-connected pals to help rally for his release.

Update: Word on Twitter is that the video vendor has since been released, and charges dropped by the judge (via surizar).