Capítulo IV. Delitos y penas

The crimes defined in the present Law are of public action.

Whoever, within the framework of unequal power relations between men and women, causes the death of a woman because of her condition as a woman, taking advantage of any of the following circumstances, commits the crime of femicide:

a.Having unsuccessfully attempted to establish or reestablish a partner relationship or an intimate relationship with the victim.

b.Maintaining at the time the act is perpetrated, or having maintained with the victim, family, conjugal, cohabitation, intimacy or dating, friendship or companionship relations, or an employment relationship.

c.As a result of the repeated manifestation of violence against the victim.

d.As a result of group rituals, using or not using weapons of any kind.

e.In contempt of the victim's body for the satisfaction of sexual instincts, or by committing acts of genital mutilation or any other type of mutilation.

f.Due to misogyny.

g.When the act is committed in the presence of the victim's daughters or sons.

h.With the concurrence of any of the qualifying circumstances contemplated in Article 132 of the Criminal Code.

The person liable for this crime shall be punished with a penalty of imprisonment of twenty-five to fifty years, *and no reduction of the penalty may be granted to such person for any reason. Persons prosecuted for the commission of this crime shall not enjoy any substitute measure.

Whoever, in the public or private sphere, exercises physical, sexual or psychological violence, making use of the following circumstances, commits the crime of violence against women:

a.Having repeatedly or continuously and unsuccessfully sought to establish or re-establish a partner or intimate relationship with the victim.

b.Maintaining at the time the act is perpetrated, or having maintained with the victim family, conjugal, cohabitation, intimate or dating relationships, friendship, companionship or an employment, educational or religious relationship.

c.As a result of group rituals, whether or not using weapons of any kind.

d.In contempt of the victim's body for satisfaction of sexual instincts, or committing acts of genital mutilation.

e.Due to misogyny.

The person liable for the crime of physical or sexual violence against women shall be punished with imprisonment of five to twelve years, according to the seriousness of the crime, without prejudice to the acts constituting other crimes stipulated in ordinary laws.

The person liable for the crime of psychological violence against women shall be punished with imprisonment of five to eight years, according to the seriousness of the crime, without prejudice to the acts constituting other crimes stipulated in ordinary laws.

Whoever, within the public or private sphere, engages in conduct falling under any of the following cases commits the crime of economic violence against women:

a.Impairs, limits or restricts the free disposition of her property or patrimonial or labor rights.

b.Forces the woman to sign documents that affect, limit or restrict her patrimony or put it at risk; or that exempt him from economic, criminal, civil liability or liability of any other nature.

c.Destroys or conceals documents evidencing ownership or personal identification, or property, personal objects, work instruments that are indispensable to her for carrying out her habitual activities.

d.Subjects the woman's will through economic abuse by failing to cover the basic needs of of Guatemala and in the international conventions and treaties

e.Exercises psychological, sexual or physical violence against the woman, in order to control the income or the flow of monetary resources entering the household.

The person responsible for this crime shall be punished with imprisonment of five to eight years, without prejudice to the acts constituting other crimes stipulated in ordinary laws.

In the crimes defined against women, cultural or religious customs or traditions may not be invoked as a ground of justification or exculpation to perpetrate, inflict, consent to, promote, instigate or tolerate violence against women.

Upon the mere complaint of the act of violence in the private sphere, the jurisdictional body hearing it shall order the security measures referred to in Article 7 of the Law to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Intrafamily Violence, which may be applied to a woman who is a victim of the crimes established in the present law, even when the aggressor is not her relative.

The circumstances that aggravate violence against women must be analyzed in accordance with the following:

a)In relation to the personal circumstances of the person who aggresses.

b)In relation to the personal circumstances of the victim.

c)In relation to the existing power relations between the victim and the person who aggresses.

e)In relation to the context of the violent act and the harm caused to the victim.

f)In relation to the means and mechanisms used to perpetrate the act and to the harm caused.