Twitter Tweeter Arrested in Guatemala

One minute, you’re telling people “what you are doing,” the next minute, you’re getting hauled off to jail. That’s what happened to a man in Guatemala who police say could have “incited a panic” with his viral Tweeting.

Jean Ramses Anleu Fernandez was taken into custody after suggesting on Twitter that everyone who had money in the Banrural bank should withdraw it all. The reason?: “to break the control that corrupt entities” have over the state-run bank.

Sounds innocent enough until you know the background. Long story short – the bank has been at the center of a political controversy that has involved the murders of an attorney and a finance expert, as well as accusations that the government has been complicit in those crimes. One of the victims even recorded a video warning of his impending death.

So the next time you think about firing up Twitter, Facebook or some other social networking site to spout off on your bank for something – its missteps in the global financial crisis, maybe – you might think twice. OK, probably not in America, but other places, perhaps.