Título VIII. Regimen sancionatorio

Violations expressly set forth in municipal ordinances, regulations, agreements and provisions, which residents, transients and legal persons must observe in the municipal district concerned, shall be sanctioned.

In the exercise of its sanctioning power, the municipality may impose, as applicable, the following sanctions for administrative faults or administrative legal violations committed against municipal ordinances, regulations or provisions and this Code:

a)Verbal or written warning.

b)Fine.

c)Suspension for up to three (3) months, according to the seriousness of the administrative fault or violation of the municipal license or permit in the exercise of which it was committed.

d)Cancellation of the license or permit.

e)Provisional closure of the establishment.

f)Total or partial demolition, where applicable, of the work or construction.

The sanctions shall be those expressly determined in the laws and regulations, as well as in municipal ordinances, agreements and provisions; and applied by the judge of municipal affairs or the municipal mayor, in the absence of a court of municipal affairs; and they shall be applied subject to the order indicated.

Fines shall range from a minimum of fifty quetzales (Q50.00) to a maximum of five hundred thousand quetzales (Q500,000.00), according to the nature and seriousness of the fault. However, when the seriousness of the fault notoriously affects the interests of the municipality, the amount of the upper range of the sanction may be increased to one hundred percent (100%) of the damage caused.

When a fine is not paid within the fixed time limit, the mayor may initiate or order the applicable legal actions against the offender, and may delegate these powers, as applicable, to whomever corresponds.

In accordance with the law, payment of the fine does not exempt from the other obligations and responsibilities that correspond.

The exercise of the power of direct action is without prejudice to the fine warranted by the violation; but the cost of the work or labor executed by the municipality in substitution for the remiss private individual shall be collected through the economic-coercive procedure.

No person may be subject to sanction without having been summoned, heard, and defeated with respect to the violation imputed to them.

Against the agreements and decisions issued by the mayor, by any municipal collegiate body other than the Municipal Council, or by any of the municipal enterprises, or other municipal administrative authorities, an application for revocation shall lie, which shall be filed before whoever issued the decision being challenged.

The Municipal Council, the mayor and other municipal collegiate bodies, or of any of the municipal enterprises, and administrative authorities of the municipality may revoke on its own initiative their own decisions, before they have been consented to by the affected persons.

A motion for reconsideration lies against the original decisions of the Municipal Council.

Against the decisions on the revocation and reconsideration appeals issued by the Municipal Council, the contentious-administrative proceedings shall proceed in accordance with the law on the matter.

The municipality may file contentious-administrative proceedings against the decisions of the Executive Branch, Ministries of State, autonomous and decentralized entities, general directorates, and any public entity that has no superior administrative authority, in the same cases in which private individuals may do so pursuant to law.

The filing, requirements, time limits, procedure and decision of the means of challenge referred to in this Chapter shall be governed by the provisions established in the Contentious Administrative Law.

For the enforcement of its ordinances, compliance with its regulations, other provisions and ordinary laws, the Municipality may create, according to its resources and needs, such Municipal Affairs Trial Courts as it deems advisable and such Municipal Affairs Traffic Trial Courts as it considers necessary. In the creation of Trial Courts, jurisdiction may be assigned by reason of subject matter and territory, according to the needs of the municipality.

The municipal affairs judge exercises jurisdiction and authority throughout the entire scope of the municipal circumscription concerned, in accordance with the norms of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, of this Code and other ordinary laws, ordinances, regulations and other municipal provisions and laws on the matter, as well as the corresponding customary law.

The municipal transit affairs courts shall be in charge of hearing violations of the traffic law and regulations, when the municipality exercises the administration thereof within its territorial circumscription.

The Municipal Council shall appoint the Judge of Municipal Affairs in accordance with the requirements established in this Code and the corresponding regulation. In municipalities that lack a Court of Municipal Affairs, the Mayor or the person designated by the Municipal Council shall assume the functions corresponding to the Judge of Municipal Affairs, observing the provisions of this Code. Only the Municipal Council may remove the Judge of Municipal Affairs, with just cause therefor.

To be a judge of municipal affairs, the same requirements established by law for peace judges must be met; in addition, he or she must speak the majority language of the municipality or avail himself or herself of a translator for the exercise of his or her functions.

The municipal-affairs judge is competent to hear, decide and enforce that which he adjudicates:

a)All those matters in which good customs, the embellishment and cleanliness of towns, the environment, health, municipal public services and public services in general are affected, when cognizance of such matters is not attributed to the mayor, the Municipal Council or another municipal authority, or to the traditional scope of application of customary law, in accordance with the laws of the country, the ordinances, regulations and other municipal provisions.

b)In the event that administrative transgressions concur with punishable acts, the municipal-affairs judge shall, in addition, have the obligation to certify what is pertinent to the Public Prosecutor's Office; if it constitutes a flagrant crime, to immediately report to the authorities of the National Civil Police, being liable, in accordance with the law, for his omission. When proceeding in these cases he shall duly take into account the corresponding customary law and, if necessary, shall obtain the advice of an expert in that subject matter.

c)Voluntary proceedings for supplementary titling, for the sole purpose of taking the evidence that the specific law assigns to the mayor, immediately referring the file to the Municipal Council for its consideration and, where applicable, approval. The municipal judge shall ensure that in such proceedings the customary norms whose application must be taken into account are not arbitrarily violated.

d)All such administrative proceedings and files referred to him by the mayor or the Municipal Council, in which the municipality must intervene by legal mandate or in which a report, view or opinion is requested from him.

e)Matters in which a new work causes public damage, or involving a work dangerous to the inhabitants and the public, proceeding, according to the subject matter, in accordance with the law and norms of the corresponding customary law, and taking the preventive measures that the case may require.

*f) Violations of the traffic law and regulations, when the municipality exercises the administration thereof within its territorial circumscription and the municipality does not have a municipal-affairs traffic court.

g)Violations of health laws and regulations committed by those who sell food or engage in commerce in municipal markets, slaughterhouses and municipal fairs, and sales on the public way within their respective territorial circumscription.

h)All matters that violate the laws, ordinances, regulations or provisions of the municipal government.

In all matters of which the municipal-affairs judge takes cognizance, he shall take and enforce the measures and impose the sanctions that are appropriate, as applicable.

Unless otherwise provided by law, ordinances and regulations, the procedure before the Municipal Affairs Trial Court shall be oral, public, simple, free of greater formalities and conducted and advanced on its own initiative, for which the immediacy of the judge in acts and evidence proceedings is necessary.

The procedure shall be initiated in the following cases:

a)When the law, ordinance, regulation or municipal provision so establishes.

b)By verbal complaint or grievance, in which case a record shall immediately be drawn up, in which the complainant shall be identified and the facts or omissions giving rise thereto and the requests made shall be set forth.

c)By written complaint or grievance, in which the complainant or accuser shall identify himself by his complete first and last names, age, marital status, profession or occupation, nationality, municipal domicile, residence and place to receive summonses and notifications within the perimeter of the city or town where the Trial Court is seated; he shall state the facts or omissions giving rise thereto and the requests he makes.

d)Complaints or reports which, by reason of their office or employment, the public officials and employees of the municipality, or the department or office under their responsibility, must obligatorily make or file.

Complaints, grievances or reports shall be documented on plain paper and, as applicable, as many copies or photocopies shall be made or filed as parties or interested persons must be notified, and one copy or photocopy for filing and replacement of the case file in case of loss.

The exercise of the rights guaranteed by this procedure is not conditioned upon the presentation or exhibition of the ornato tax receipt, or of any municipal solvency certificate, so that when the intervention of the Trial Court is requested, it must act immediately.

Upon receipt of the complaint, grievance or report, the Trial Court shall order urgent measures and carry out such evidence proceedings as it deems appropriate and necessary, granting a hearing for five (5) working days to the interested parties, in accordance with the law, ordinance, regulation or municipal provision governing the case.

Before ruling, the judge may order, in an order for better decision, the performance of any procedural step or the presentation or exhibition of any document that he considers necessary for the clarification of the facts, setting for that purpose a time limit that does not exceed five (5) days and, within the same time limit, if applicable, setting the hearing at which the evidence must be taken.

Likewise, persons who, having been duly summoned and notified, fail to comply within the stated time limit with the decisions issued by the judge of municipal affairs may be subject to the following enforcement orders and coercive measures: a) warnings, b) fine, and c) compulsory personal appearance. For this latter measure the order must be requested from the corresponding peace judge, on grounds of disobedience.

Once the investigation is exhausted, the municipal affairs judge shall issue the final decision within fifteen (15) working days, in which the judge shall summarize the facts, assessing the evidence and, based thereon and in accordance with law, shall apply the corresponding sanctions, if applicable.

Insofar as they do not contravene its nature, the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Procedural Code, the Criminal Procedural Code, the Law of the Judicial Branch and the Contentious-Administrative Law are applicable to this procedure.

The mayor, syndics and councilors, community and auxiliary mayors and constables, in serving municipal offices, fulfill the duty established in subparagraph g) of Article 135 of the Political Constitution of the Republic.

In the credentials issued by the mayor to syndics, councilors, community or auxiliary mayors, and constables, when they perform the office gratuitously, that circumstance shall be recorded for the purposes of the preceding article.

In the transfer of the offices of mayor, trustee and councilors, the following solemn procedure shall be observed:

a)The outgoing mayor, in solemn session of the Municipal Council which he presides, shall administer the oath to the incoming mayor, who, raising his right hand and with his left hand on the Political Constitution of the Republic and the Municipal Code, shall respond to the formula that reads: "Do you swear on your honor as a citizen to perform with loyalty and patriotism the office of mayor to which you have been directly and popularly elected; to be faithful to the Political Constitution of the Republic, to respect and comply with the laws of the country, to defend municipal autonomy?" and, upon answering affirmatively, the outgoing mayor shall install him in office and shall hand to him the staff as symbol of municipal authority.

b)The incoming mayor, addressing the new members of the Municipal Council, shall ask them to raise their right hand and immediately thereafter shall administer the oath to them collectively and in accordance with the formula that reads: "Do you swear on your honor as citizens to perform with loyalty and patriotism the offices to which you have been directly and popularly elected, to be faithful to the Political Constitution of the Republic, to respect and comply with the laws of the country and to defend municipal autonomy?" And, upon answering affirmatively, he shall install them in their offices.

The respective record shall be signed by the outgoing and incoming members of the Municipal Council and by the secretary, present at the same act.

The civil associations and committees referred to in Articles 18 and 19 of this Code, authorized by the departmental governorships and other authorities, shall, as from the entry into force of this Code, come under the technical and legal jurisdiction of the municipal mayor of their territorial circumscription.

In accordance with the respective law, civil associations and committees are exempt from payment of the fiscal stamp tax.

In the provisions of this Code the concept of gender equity is assumed, understood as non-discrimination between both sexes in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala.

This Decree was approved by more than two-thirds of the total number of deputies comprising the Congress of the Republic, shall enter into force on July 1, 2002, and shall be published in the official gazette.