Libro Segundo Título VII. De los delitos contra la seguridad colectiva

Whoever intentionally sets fire to property belonging to another shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to eight years.

Setting fire to one's own property that endangers the life, bodily integrity or patrimony of another shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to four years.

The following is specifically aggravated arson:

1º.That committed in a building, house or shelter that is inhabited or intended for habitation.

2º.That committed in a convoy, vessel, aircraft or collective transport vehicle.

3º.That committed in a public building or a building intended for public use or for a work of social assistance or culture; in an airport or in a railway station or motor vehicle station.

4º.That committed in a depot of explosive or flammable substances.

5º.That which destroys property of scientific, artistic or historic value.

The person liable for aggravated arson shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of four to twelve years.

Whoever causes damage by employing powerful means of destruction or by means of flooding, explosion, crumbling or collapse of a building commits the crime of havoc. The person liable for havoc shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of five to fifteen years.

Whoever negligently causes havoc or fire shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to three years.

If the death of one or more persons has resulted from the negligent fire or havoc, the person liable shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to five years.

Whoever damages or renders unusable facilities, objects or works intended for the common defense against disasters, giving rise to the danger that they may occur, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to six years.

Whoever, in order to hinder or prevent defense tasks against a disaster, removes, conceals or renders unusable materials, instruments or other means intended for the aforementioned defense shall incur the same penalty.

Whoever, with the purpose of contributing to the commission of crimes against collective security, manufactures, supplies, acquires, steals or possesses bombs, explosive, flammable, asphyxiating or toxic matters or substances or materials intended for their preparation, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to six years.

Whoever, knowing or having reason to presume that they contribute to the commission of crimes against collective security, gives instructions for the preparation of the substances or materials referred to in the preceding paragraph, shall incur the same penalty.

Whoever impedes or disrupts the railway service in any of the following ways shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to five years:

1º.By destroying, damaging or rendering inoperative a railway line, rolling stock, railway work or installation.

2º.By placing on the track obstacles that may cause derailment.

3º.By transmitting a false notice relating to the movement of trains or interrupting telephone, telegraphic or radio communications.

4º.By performing any other act that may result in disaster.

If disaster results from the acts referred to in the preceding article, the person responsible shall be punished with imprisonment of four to twelve years.

Whoever endangers a vessel or aircraft, whether own or belonging to another, or performs any act tending to prevent or hinder maritime, fluvial or air navigation, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to five years.

If the acts referred to in the preceding article result in shipwreck or grounding of a vessel, or the fall or destruction of an aircraft, the person responsible shall be sanctioned with imprisonment for four to twelve years.

Whoever places another means of public transportation in danger, prevents it or hinders it, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to three years.

If a disaster results from the act, the person liable shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to five years.

Whoever, through negligence, causes any of the disasters provided for in the preceding articles of this chapter shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to three years.

If death of one or more persons or serious injuries have resulted, the sanction shall be two to six years of imprisonment.

Whoever endangers security, or prevents or hinders the operation of water, electrical energy or any other services intended for the public, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to six years.

If the person who commits the crime described in the preceding paragraph is part of an organized criminal group or criminal organization, the penalty to be imposed shall be imprisonment of six to twelve years.

Commits an attack: a) Whoever in any manner endangers the security or hinders the installation, operation or maintenance of telecommunications services of any type. b) Whoever in any manner removes infrastructure necessary for the provision of telecommunications services of any type. Whoever commits this crime shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six (6) to ten (10) years.

The person who obstructs, interrupts, suspends or in any way disturbs the installation, use or repair of infrastructure for data transmission, to any person or entity holding an authorization in accordance with the Law for the Control of Mobile Telecommunications in Centers for Deprivation of Liberty and Strengthening of Infrastructure for Data Transmission, commits the crime of disturbance to the installation, use or repair of data transmission equipment. The person liable for this crime shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six to eight years, a fine of five thousand to twenty-five thousand quetzales and special disqualification.

If the person liable for this crime is a public official or public employee, the penalty shall be increased by one third.

Whoever attacks the security of telecommunications or postal communications, or by any means interrupts or obstructs such services, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to five years.

Whoever assaults a carrier of correspondence, to intercept or detain it, to take possession of it or to render it unusable, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to six years.

Whoever, on the occasion of any of the disasters or losses covered in the present chapter, steals, conceals or renders unusable facilities, materials, instruments or apparatus, or other means intended for defense or rescue work, or prevents or hinders the provision of defense or rescue services, shall be sanctioned with the same penalty as that corresponding to the perpetrators of the crime in question.

The driver, captain, pilot or mechanic of a railway, vessel, aircraft or of any other means of public transport, who abandons his post before the end of the respective journey, if the act does not constitute another crime sanctioned with a greater penalty, shall be punished with imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of twenty to two thousand quetzales.

Whoever performs on the sea, lakes or navigable rivers any act of depredation or violence against a vessel or against persons found therein, without being authorized by any belligerent State or without the vessel by means of which he executes the act belonging to the navy of a recognized State, commits the crime of piracy.

The crime of piracy is also committed by:

1°.Whoever takes possession of any vessel or of what belongs to its equipment, by means of fraud or violence committed against its commander.

2°.Whoever delivers to pirates a vessel, its cargo or what belongs to its crew.

3°.Whoever, with violence, opposes the commander or the crew defending the vessel attacked by pirates.

4°.Whoever, on his own or another's behalf, fits out a vessel intended for piracy.

5°.Whoever, from the national territory, trades with pirates or provides them aid.

The person liable for piracy shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.

The provisions contained in the preceding article shall apply to whoever commits piracy against aircraft or against persons on board the same.

Whoever, intentionally, spreads a dangerous or contagious disease to persons shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to six years.

Whoever participates in any illegal act involving extraction, preservation, supply, trade and use of organs or tissues of living persons or cadavers, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of five to ten years.

Whoever, intentionally, poisons, contaminates or adulterates, in a manner dangerous to health, water for common or private use or a food or medicinal substance intended for consumption, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two to eight years.

The same sanction shall apply to whoever, knowingly, delivers for consumption or holds in storage for its distribution, water or a food or medicinal substance, adulterated or contaminated.

Whoever produces food substances in a manner dangerous to health shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one to five years. The same sanction shall be applied to whoever, knowingly, trades in substances harmful to health or adulterated, deteriorated or contaminated.

Whoever adulterates medicines shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six to ten years. The same sanction shall apply to whoever, knowingly, trades in substances harmful to health, adulterated, contaminated or prohibited medicines.

Production of falsified medicines, falsified pharmaceutical products, medical devices and falsified surgical medical material.

Whoever fraudulently produces, manufactures, fabricates, conditions, wraps, packs and/or labels medicines, pharmaceutical products, medical devices or surgical medical material, with respect to their identity or brand, to make them appear to be original products, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six to ten years and a fine of fifty thousand to two hundred thousand quetzales.

If this crime is committed by employees or legal representatives of a legal person, seeking benefit for it, in addition to the criminal and pecuniary sanctions applicable to the participants in the crime, the registration of the legal person in the Mercantile Register shall be cancelled.

If the person responsible is the university professional who has a pharmaceutical establishment under his or her technical direction, he or she shall additionally be sanctioned with special disqualification for double the time of the sentence.

If as a consequence of the act the illness of any person is caused or aggravated, the penalty shall be six to fifteen years of imprisonment, and if, as a consequence thereof, the death of any person results, it shall be sanctioned in accordance with the penalties established for the crime of homicide provided for in Article 123 of the Criminal Code, Decree Number 17-73 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.

Distribution and commercialization of falsified medicines, falsified pharmaceutical products, medical devices and falsified medico-surgical material.

Whoever stores, distributes, imports, exports, commercializes, transports, sells, dispenses or makes available to the public by any means, including electronic or computer means, medicines, pharmaceutical products, medical devices or medico-surgical material that have been produced, manufactured, fabricated, packed, wrapped, conditioned and/or labeled in a fraudulent manner with respect to their identity or brand, in order to make them appear to be an original product, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six to ten years and a fine of fifty thousand to two hundred thousand quetzales.

If this crime were committed by employees or legal representatives of a legal person, seeking benefit for the latter, in addition to the criminal and pecuniary sanctions applicable to the participants in the crime, the registration of the legal person in the Commercial Register shall be canceled.

If as a consequence of the act the illness of any person were produced or aggravated, the penalty shall be six to fifteen years of imprisonment, and if, as a consequence thereof, the death of any person were to result, it shall be sanctioned in accordance with the penalties established for the crime of homicide provided for in Article 123 of the Criminal Code, Decree Number 17-73 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.

Whoever directs, operates, exploits or uses an establishment, place, site, laboratory, container or vehicle without holding the authorizations, licenses or permits from the corresponding health authority to produce, manufacture, fabricate, pack, condition, store, label, distribute, commercialize, import, export, transport, supply, sell or dispense any type of medicine, pharmaceutical product or medical devices or surgical medical material, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of six to ten years and a fine of fifty thousand to five hundred thousand quetzales.

If this crime were committed by employees or legal representatives of a legal person, seeking benefit for it, in addition to the criminal and pecuniary sanctions applicable to the participants in the crime, the registration of the legal person in the Mercantile Register shall be permanently cancelled.

If the liable person were the university professional who has a pharmaceutical establishment under his technical direction, he shall additionally be sanctioned with special disqualification for twice the time of the sentence.

Whoever, being authorized for the dispensing of medications, supplies them without a medical prescription, when such prescription is necessary, or contrary to it, shall be sanctioned with a fine of two hundred to three thousand quetzales.

The same sanction shall apply to whoever, being authorized to supply medication, does so in a kind, quantity or quality different from that declared or agreed, or dispenses them knowing that they have lost their therapeutic properties or after their expiration date.

Whoever infringes the measures imposed by law or those adopted by the health authorities to prevent the introduction or spread of an epidemic, a plant pest or an epizootic disease susceptible of affecting human beings, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment from six months to two years.

Whoever, without being authorized, sows or cultivates plants from which pharmaceuticals, drugs or narcotics may be extracted, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to five years, and a fine of five hundred to five thousand quetzales.

The same sanction shall apply to whoever trades in, possesses or supplies seeds or plants from which pharmaceuticals, drugs or narcotics may be extracted.

Shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of five hundred to five thousand quetzales:

1º.Whoever, illegally, introduces into the country pharmaceuticals, drugs or narcotics or products intended for their preparation.

2º.Whoever, without being authorized, sells, delivers, transports or supplies pharmaceuticals, drugs or narcotics.

3º.Whoever, without being authorized, retains, keeps or in any other manner keeps in his possession pharmaceuticals, drugs or narcotics, or products intended for their preparation.

The sanction indicated in the preceding article shall be increased by one-third in the following cases:

1.When the commission of the crime takes place within educational centers, public and private, or in their surroundings.

2.When the substance or product referred to in the preceding article is provided to a minor.

3.When the perpetrator of the crime is a physician, chemist, biologist, pharmacist, odontologist, laboratory technician, nurse, obstetrician, midwife, person in charge of education, ministers of worship and those responsible for the direction or management of groups. As well as those public officials and public employees who take advantage of their office.

4.When the crimes referred to in the preceding article involve international trafficking activities or have a connection of any nature therewith.

In the cases of this subparagraph, the penalties shall be non-commutable, the fines shall be from five thousand to fifty thousand quetzales, and civil liabilities, in the cases indicated in Article 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, shall be fixed between ten thousand and one hundred thousand quetzales

Whoever, without being covered by the preceding articles, provides premises, even free of charge, for the trafficking or consumption of the substances or products referred to in this chapter, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of two months to one year and a fine of one hundred to one thousand quetzales.

Whoever instigates or induces another person to the use of narcotic substances, or contributes to stimulating or spreading the use of said substances, shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of five hundred to five thousand quetzales.

Whoever performs inhumation, exhumation or transfer of a corpse or human remains in contravention of the corresponding sanitary provisions shall be sanctioned with imprisonment of one month to six months and a fine of fifty to three hundred quetzales.

If the acts covered by Articles 301, 302, 303 and 304 had been committed negligently, the person liable shall be sanctioned with the penalty corresponding to the crime, reduced by two thirds.