Libro Primero · Título II · Capítulo XI Párrafo I. Disposiciones generales

The Civil Registry is the public institution responsible for recording all acts concerning the civil status of persons.

The Civil Registry shall effect the registrations of births, adoptions, recognitions of children, marriages, de facto unions, marriage capitulations, non-subsistence and nullity of marriage, divorce, separation and subsequent reconciliation, tutorships, protutorships and guardianships, deaths and registration of foreigners and of naturalized Guatemalans and of legal persons.

Certifications of the records of the Civil Register prove the civil status of persons.

If the registration was not made, or does not appear in the book in which it should be found, or is illegible, or the pages on which the record may be supposed to have been located are missing, civil status may be established before a competent judge, by any other legal means of evidence, including certifications of ecclesiastical entries.

When it is not possible to establish the date of birth of a person, the judge shall attribute to such person the age determined by the experts, compatible with the development and physical appearance of the individual.

The consular agents of the Republic abroad shall keep the register of births, marriages, changes of nationality and deaths of Guatemalans resident or in transit in the countries in which they exercise their functions. For each entry they record in their books, they shall send a certified copy to the Civil Registry of the capital of the Republic, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, within the following eight days, so that the corresponding registrations may be made.

The registrar is depositary of the Civil Register and in the exercise of the functions proper to him, enjoys public faith, and is liable, while he does not prove that the fact is attributable to another person, for the omissions, alterations, falsifications and impersonations committed in the records of the register.

The registrar as such depositary has charge of the preservation of the books and documents relating to the civil status of persons.

loss of validity pursuant to Decrees 14-2006, 29-2007 and 23-2008, all of the Congress of the Republic). Registrations shall be made on printed forms, in accordance with the official model, which shall be filled in with the data provided by the interested parties or contained in the documents submitted.

Each sheet of the form shall consist of three parts, two of them separable, one to be sent to the Directorate of Statistics and the other to be delivered to the Interested Party.

Civil registries that do not have forms shall make the entries in the respective books; but both the latter and the forms shall be or must be bound, hardbound and foliated; they shall bear on each of their sheets the seal of the corresponding municipality and shall be provided by the latter. The first sheet shall bear a notation stating the number of folios it contains, which shall be signed by the municipal mayor and the secretary of the corporation.

The registrar must make the registrations at the moment the interested party appears to give the notice. The registrar shall make the registration that is proper by virtue of a judicial or administrative decision, or of acts verified before the municipal mayors or executed before a notary, in view of the notice, certification or testimony presented to him.

The records shall bear cardinal numbering and shall be drawn up in the authorized books, one after another, in strict order of dates. The registration shall contain the data mentioned in the respective paragraphs of this chapter.

The forms shall be printed subject to the same formalities.

Whenever a record that relates to another is drawn up, the entry to which it refers or which it modifies shall be annotated.

When a word error has been committed in any record, which does not entail alteration of concept, it may be rectified in a new entry by placing a notation in the margin of the original, if the parties and the registrar agree.

When an omission, error or mistake affecting the substance of the registered act has been incurred in the record, the interested party shall resort to the competent judge so that, with a hearing of the registrar and the Public Prosecutor's Office, rectification be ordered and the original registration be annotated.

The books shall be closed on the thirty-first of December of each year, with a notation indicating the number of records it contains, which shall be signed by the registrar.

The same notation shall be placed in the book that is concluded in the course of the year.

The civil registrar of the capital and the registrars of the other departmental capitals shall have inspection and supervision of the municipal civil registries of their respective departments, being required to visit them and to instruct those in charge of keeping them with respect to the requirements and formalities for recording entries. They shall draw up a record of the visit, in which they shall state the faults and irregularities they observe and the measures ordered to remedy them, which they shall report to the respective mayor.

The municipal civil registrars shall remit to the civil registrar of the departmental capital, within the first ten days of each month, a table, with due separation, comprising the movement of the register during the preceding month. The civil registrar of the departmental capital, in turn, shall prepare in duplicate the total table of the entries made in all the registers of the department and shall send them to the municipal mayor and to the Directorate of Statistics. Likewise, on forms to be provided by the General Directorate of Public Health, he shall provide the data requested.

Violations by the registrars of the provisions of this article shall be sanctioned by the respective mayor with a fine of five to twenty-five quetzales.

Any person obligated to give notice for a registration to be made, who fails to do so within the time limits prescribed in this Code, shall incur a fine of not less than two quetzales nor more than ten, which, as assessed by the registrar himself, the interested party shall pay upon the making of the registration requested.

The fines imposed for noncompliance with the law and regulation of the Register shall be collected by the respective municipalities.

Civil status records are public and registrations are free of charge.

Any person may obtain certifications of the acts and records contained therein.

Certifications issued by the registrars shall pay the fee established in the tariff governing this matter, with all marginal notes contained in the entry to be inserted therein.

Parish registers prove the civil status of persons born before the establishment of the Register; and also that of those born in places or towns during the time they lacked such institution.

The regulation of the Civil Register shall contain the other provisions that must govern its functioning and regulate its perfect organization in all the municipalities of the Republic.