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
- OCTOBER 7, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
On October 7, a Guatemalan court sentenced Carlos Chen,...
On October 7, a Guatemalan court sentenced Carlos Chen, Pedro Gonzalez and Fermin Lajuj, 3 former right-wing paramilitaries, to death for the killing of 2 women in the Rio Negro village massacre, some 40 miles north of the capital, in which 70 women and 1
- AUGUST 14, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
On August 14, A court in Guatemala gave suspended sentences...
On August 14, A court in Guatemala gave suspended sentences of up to 5 years to a group of 25 soldiers for killing 11 Indians, including 2 children, at a farm in the northern province of Xaman in 1995, in the last stages of the country's civil war
- JULY 28, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
Guatemala abstained from the vote on the resolution...
Guatemala abstained from the vote on the resolution approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 28 (1999/61)
- MARCH 1, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
In March, a delegation of members of the Italian Senate...
In March, a delegation of members of the Italian Senate and of Hands off Cain went to Guatemala to have the Government confirm that it would abstain on the resolution for a moratorium on executions to be voted on by the UN Commission on Human Rights
- FEBRUARY 19, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
On February 19, two Salvadoran men, Dimas Samayoa Garcia...
On February 19, two Salvadoran men, Dimas Samayoa Garcia and Lucas Revolorio Samayoa, were sentenced to death after a quick trial
- JANUARY 22, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
On January 22, a Guatemala City court handed down 100-year...
On January 22, a Guatemala City court handed down 100-year sentences to each of 4 police detectives, including the former chief of an anti-kidnapping squad, finding them guilty of 2 kidnappings
- JANUARY 1, 1999GuatemalaDEATH 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 and Vice-President
- JANUARY 1, 1999GuatemalaDEATH 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, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
An estimated 200,000 people, mostly Mayan civilians,...
An estimated 200,000 people, mostly Mayan civilians, were killed or disappeared in the 36-year civil war that ended in 1996 with a United Nations-sponsored peace accord between the Government and Marxist rebels