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. Kidnapping and extra-judicial executions became capital offences in 1996. According to some observers it is difficult for Guatemala to apply the penalty since, in 1978, the country ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, essentially pledging not to extend the death penalty to other crimes after the ratification. Constitutional Court declared void the law. Under the 1986 Constitution the death penalty cannot be imposed on women, people over 60, those guilty of political crimes or related common crimes, or people extradited on condition that the death penalty will not be applied.