Marvin DEL CID & Sonny FIGUEROA

Guatemalan journalists Marvin Del Cid and Sonny Figueroa faced continuing harassment in 2025, because of their work. On 16 January 2026, the two Vox Populi journalists were subjected to homophobic insults in an article on the platform Xela NEWS. The same webpage spread disinformation and stigmatising attacks on other independent media outlets in Guatemala.  

In August 2025, the Ministry of the Interior, unilaterally withdrew the security protection that had been provided through the National Civil Police (PNC). The journalists told PEN International that the publisher of their third book, Miguel Martínez: el ascenso al poder, was threatened and that they had received ongoing attacks on social media. They left Guatemala in October 2025, fearing for their safety.  

Earlier, in 2023,  both journalists had also left Guatemala temporarily, due to safety concerns; they returned later the same year (see Case Lists 2023/4-2025). Marvin Del Cid, born in Guatemala City in 1976, is journalist and author specialising in investigative and political issues. Founder of the NGO Artículo 35, he has also worked as a professor at universities in Chile and Guatemala.  

Sonny Figueroa, born in Guatemala City in 1992, is an investigative journalist and author specialising in political affairs. He is Vice-president of Artículo 35 and founder of the investigative online media outlet Vox Populi. They are the authors of ¡Yo no quiero ser reconocido como un hijueputa más! (I don’t want to be recognised as just another hijueputa!) and Así me convertí en un ‘hijueputa más’ (That’s how I became one more ‘hijueputa’). 

Update: 

The two journalists returned to Guatemala in January 2026.