Communicator Rafael Guerrero sentenced to one year in prison and payment of RD$15 million for defamation

Santo Domingo.– The communicator Rafael Antonio Guerrero Méndez was sentenced this Wednesday to one year in prison and the payment of an indemnity of RD$15 million after being found guilty of defamation and insult to the detriment of the former director of the National Directorate of Drug Control (DNCD), Rolando Rosado Mateo.

The sentence was issued by the Fourth Criminal Chamber of the National District, presided over by Judge Franni González Castillo, who determined that Guerrero Méndez incurred violations of Law 53-07 on High Technology Crimes and Offenses, by spreading accusations without evidence through his program on social media. The court also ordered the removal of the content linked to the case, as well as the payment of legal costs. The decision establishes that the communicator's statements affected the honor and reputation of Rosado Mateo.

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According to the former official's lawyer, José Valdez Fernández, another judicial process remains open in the Ninth Chamber of the Criminal Court of the National District, also based on alleged violations of articles 21 and 22 of Law 53-07. The jurist denounced that the case has suffered multiple postponements, noting that at least 48 hearings have been attempted without success due to incidents attributed to the defendant. In parallel, Ramón Antonio Alberto Then has also filed a legal action against Guerrero Méndez for alleged offenses to his honor. It is not the first time that the communicator faces a conviction for this type of crime. In 2024, Guerrero Méndez was sentenced to three months of suspended prison and the payment of RD$2 million in favor of former police chief Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermín. However, that decision was later annulled by higher authorities, who ordered the celebration of a new trial.