Guatemala
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist for ordinary crimes
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The Guatemalan Penal Code (1973) provides for the death...
- News items in the archive
- 69
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Guatemala is classified as Abolitionist for ordinary crimes in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 69 news items on Guatemala, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- APRIL 11, 2004GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President.
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President.
- NOVEMBER 14, 2003GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
A court in Guatemala sentenced Santos Hernandez to...
A court in Guatemala sentenced Santos Hernandez to death by lethal injection for killing five native family members in Chiquimula
- MAY 16, 2003GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Economist reported that according to an American...
The Economist reported that according to an American report of January 2003, Guatemalan police "stole twice the quantity of drugs that they officially seized and
- APRIL 24, 2003GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death...
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- MARCH 21, 2003GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Mutual Support Group (GAM), a Guatemalan human rights...
Mutual Support Group (GAM), a Guatemalan human rights group, said death-squad agents linked to the state committed nine summary executions in the first two months of the year
- JANUARY 1, 2003GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death...
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President
- AUGUST 6, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemalan lawmakers began debating a presidential...
Guatemalan lawmakers began debating a presidential request to ban capital punishment
- AUGUST 1, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemalan Ambassador to the Organization of American...
Guatemalan Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Arturo Duarte told the body that his government plans to abolish the death penalty
- JULY 30, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Pope John Paul II expressed satisfaction with the decision...
Pope John Paul II expressed satisfaction with the decision of President Alfonso Portillo to ask the Guatemalan Congress to abolish capital punishment
- JULY 30, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Pope John Paul II expressed satisfaction with the decision...
Pope John Paul II expressed satisfaction with the decision of President Alfonso Portillo to ask the Guatemalan Congress to abolish capital punishment
- JULY 27, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Heeding a call from Pope John Paul II, Guatemalan President...
Heeding a call from Pope John Paul II, Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo agreed to halt state executions during his administration and will ask the National Assembly to abolish the death penalty altogether
- MAY 9, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The U
The U
- APRIL 25, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemala abstained from the resolution 2002/77 on...
Guatemala abstained from the resolution 2002/77 on the death penalty at the 58th UN Commission on Human Rights
- APRIL 23, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Police recaptured a convict who escaped with 78 other...
Police recaptured a convict who escaped with 78 other prisoners from a maximum-security jail on Guatemala's southern coast on June 17, 2001, but 19 of the escapees remain at large
- JANUARY 1, 2002GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death...
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President
- APRIL 25, 2001GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death...
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25 , 2001 (2001/68)
- JANUARY 1, 2001GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Pardons to convicted criminals are no longer handled...
Pardons to convicted criminals are no longer handled by the presidency, but by the Supreme Court
- JANUARY 1, 2001GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan Congress adopted lethal injection after...
The Guatemalan Congress adopted lethal injection after a botched firing squad execution in 1996 forced prison guards to finish off two men with pistol shots to the head, a gruesome scene replayed hundreds of times on local television
- JANUARY 1, 2001GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death...
The Guatemalan penal code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President
- NOVEMBER 27, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The UN Committee against torture cited concern over...
The UN Committee against torture cited concern over what it called a deterioration of the human rights situation in Guatemala, including matters involving torture
- SEPTEMBER 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Carlos Chun Choc, Douglas Montt Solorzano and Gustavo...
Carlos Chun Choc, Douglas Montt Solorzano and Gustavo Carranza were sentenced to death by lethal injection for kidnapping and killing two businessmen and a 17-year-old university student in 1996 and 1997
- JULY 18, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
A poll conducted by a local newspaper indicated that...
A poll conducted by a local newspaper indicated that 80% of Guatemalans agree with the death penalty - which is also strongly supported by the main business organisations
- JUNE 29, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Two convicted kidnappers were put to death by lethal...
Two convicted kidnappers were put to death by lethal injection at the Pavon prison in an execution shown live on Guatemalan television
- JUNE 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
President Alfonso Portillo granted clemency to an illiterate...
President Alfonso Portillo granted clemency to an illiterate Kekchi-speaking peasant farmer, Pedro Rax Cucul, who had been sentenced to death for a 1996 murder
- MARCH 4, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Arango Escobar, Guatemalan Ombudsman for Human Rights...
Arango Escobar, Guatemalan Ombudsman for Human Rights announced that the Guatemalan Consul in Belize had taken steps to allow 61 Guatemalan prisoners, some of whom on death row, held in the Central de Hatyville prison in Belize to be deported back to Guat
- FEBRUARY 2, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Three former Guatemalan paramilitary men on massacre...
Three former Guatemalan paramilitary men on massacre charges had their death penalty commuted to 50 years imprisonment for lack of direct evidence
- JANUARY 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Pardons to convicted criminals are no longer handled...
Pardons to convicted criminals are no longer handled by the presidency, but by the Supreme Court
- JANUARY 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death...
Guatemala abstained from the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 26 (no
- JANUARY 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan Penal Code (1973) provides for the death...
The Guatemalan Penal Code (1973) provides for the death penalty for parricide, aggravated homicide and assassination of the President or Vice-President
- JANUARY 1, 2000GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
The Guatemalan Congress adopted lethal injection after...
The Guatemalan Congress adopted lethal injection after a botched firing squad execution in 1996 forced prison guards to finish off two men with pistol shots to the head, a gruesome scene replayed hundreds of times on local television