In short: No Guatemalan instrument we could locate either authorises or prohibits photographing a police officer or a soldier. The police statute is now Decreto 35-2024 (it repealed Decreto 11-97 in its Art. 88), and across its 37 pages fotografiar, filmar and grabar appear zero times — the only camera in the law is the body camera it obliges the State to give officers (Art. 80). The Constitution’s Art. 35 forbids “censura ni licencia previa” and says publications criticising public officials for acts in office “no constituyen delito o falta”; Art. 5 says nobody must obey an order not based on law. Military installations are a different regime: Código Penal Arts. 366, 367 and 369 exist, and their verbs are revelar, levantar planos and procurar u obtener informaciones secretas — not “photograph”. This page reports the published rules and the documented absences. It does not predict what anyone will do, and it is not legal advice.
Every travel forum answers this question with a story about someone’s afternoon. This page answers it with the instruments, which is less satisfying and considerably more useful, because the honest answer has three parts that never appear together: the Constitution grants something broad, the police statute says nothing at all, and the criminal code says something quite specific about military works that most people have never read.
The four regimes, side by side
The single most common error is treating “police” and “military” as one question. They are governed by different instruments, enforced by different bodies, and carry different consequences.
| What you are pointing a camera at | The instrument that governs it | What the instrument actually says | Which body |
|---|---|---|---|
| A uniformed police officer in a public place | Decreto 35-2024, Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil | Nothing. Zero matches for fotograf, filmar, grabar, captar, prensa, periodis, comunicación social in the full consolidated text | PNC, under the Ministerio de Gobernación |
| The act of publishing what you shot | Constitución Política, Art. 35 | “sin censura ni licencia previa”; and criticism of public officials for acts in office “no constituyen delito o falta” — but “Quien en uso de esta libertad faltare al respeto a la vida privada o a la moral, será responsable conforme a la ley” | A jury, by Art. 35’s own final clauses; the detail is delegated to the Ley Constitucional de Emisión del Pensamiento |
| A barracks, fort, arsenal, hangar or other military work | Código Penal, Decreto 17-73, Arts. 366, 367, 369 | Punishes revelar State-security secrets, levantar planos of military works without legal authorisation, and procurar u obtener secret defence information. Does not name photography | Ministerio Público and the courts |
| Anything, during a declared state of exception | Ley de Orden Público, Decreto 7 | Art. 35 allows censura previa on an “órgano de publicidad” after a warning and a repeat offence. Art. 13(7) allows centralising emergency information in one official or office | The Executive, in Consejo de Ministros (Art. 2º) |
Two of those four rows are silences and two are rules. Keeping them apart is the whole job.
Row 1: the police statute, and the reform nobody has updated for
Start with a correction, because it invalidates most of what is written about Guatemalan policing online — including our own earlier working assumption when this page was commissioned.
Decreto 11-97 is repealed. The Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil now in force is Decreto 35-2024 del Congreso de la República. Its own preamble gives the reason: “Que el Decreto Número 11-97 del Congreso de la República, Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil, no es acorde con la realidad nacional, resultando insuficiente en lo relativo a la organización, carrera policial, regionalización, profesionalización, gestión de recursos… lo que exige la creación de una nueva Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil.”
And its Article 88 does the work: “Se deroga el Decreto Número 11-97 del Congreso de la República, Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil y sus respectivos reglamentos.”
| Fact | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument in force | Decreto 35-2024 del Congreso de la República | consolidated text, Academia de la PNC portal |
| Emitted | 26 November 2024 — “EL VEINTISÉIS DE NOVIEMBRE DE DOS MIL VEINTICUATRO” | signature block |
| Executive sanction | 6 December 2024 — “PALACIO NACIONAL: Guatemala, seis de diciembre del año dos mil veinticuatro. PUBLÍQUESE Y CÚMPLASE” | signature block |
| Entry into force | “La presente Ley entra en vigencia el día siguiente de su publicación en el Diario Oficial” | Art. 90 |
| What it repeals | Decreto 11-97 and its reglamentos | Art. 88 |
| Transitional catch | Executive has one year to issue new reglamentos; meanwhile “se aplicarán los actuales reglamentos y manuales, siempre y cuando no contravengan esta Ley” | Art. 89 |
| Provisionally suspended fragments | 15 annotations, all citing “el numeral romano I), del Expediente Número 8870-2024 el 15-02-2025” | asterisked notes throughout the text |
The silence, stated precisely enough to be checked
Here is what was actually searched, so you can judge the claim rather than take it. The consolidated 37-page text was searched for each of these strings:
| Search string | Matches | Where the matches are |
|---|---|---|
fotograf | 0 | — |
filmar | 0 | — |
film | 0 | — |
grabar | 0 | — |
grabaci | 0 | — |
captar | 0 | — |
prensa | 0 | — |
periodis | 0 | — |
comunicación social | 0 | — |
imagen | 1 | Art. 27 — the Inspectoría General’s duty to preserve the institution’s “imagen, prestigio y calidad del servicio policial” |
cámara | 7 | all seven in Art. 80 |
video / audiovisual | 2 / 1 | Art. 80 only |
So the only camera the Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil regulates is the one on the officer.
Article 80 is worth quoting because it inverts the question. It establishes “la obligación de dotar a los agentes de la Policía Nacional Civil con equipo especializado, incluyendo cámaras corporales y cámaras de videovigilancia para las radiopatrullas, que permitan documentar sus actividades operativas en beneficio de la transparencia, la rendición de cuentas y la protección de los derechos de todos los involucrados.” Acquisition is to be coordinated between the Ministerio de Finanzas Públicas and the Ministerio de Gobernación from the Law’s entry into force.
The footage rule is narrower than the camera rule: “Los registros audiovisuales obtenidos a través de las cámaras corporales y cámaras de las radiopatrullas, solo podrán ser utilizados en el marco de investigaciones y utilizándose como medio de prueba en los procesos judiciales, quedando prohibido su uso para otros fines no autorizados legalmente.” And Article 80 assigns responsibility for the protocols: “El Ministerio de Gobernación y la Policía Nacional Civil, serán responsables de la elaboración y aplicación de los protocolos de uso, almacenamiento y custodia de los registros generados por las cámaras corporales y de radiopatrullas, así como de los lineamientos para su correcta operación en aras de proteger los derechos de privacidad y garantizar el debido proceso.”
That is a legislated obligation, not a report on reality. No figure for how many body cameras have been deployed was located, and Article 80 itself requires the acquisition to be coordinated between the Ministerio de Finanzas Públicas and the Ministerio de Gobernación, and requires them and the PNC to secure the necessary funds.
What the statute does say about officers being identifiable
Silence about your camera does not mean silence about their visibility. Three provisions of Decreto 35-2024 bear directly on whether the officer in front of you is supposed to be identifiable, and one of them contains an exception that is easy to miss.
- Art. 13(h) — the duty, and its carve-out, in one sentence. “Identificarse portando las insignias descritas en el reglamento respectivo, con excepción de las unidades que por su función y seguridad no deben ser de conocimiento público, pero en todo momento deberá llevarse el registro por parte de la Dirección General.”
- Art. 13(e) — on detaining someone. “Al momento de efectuar una detención o aprehensión, indicar al detenido o aprehendido los motivos de su detención y derechos que le asisten, debiendo observar los plazos, requisitos y trámites establecidos por el ordenamiento jurídico y velar por la vida e integridad física del detenido o aprehendido.”
- Art. 14(b)(i) — the duty to explain an intervention. “Observar en todo momento, un trato adecuado en sus relaciones con la población a la que auxiliará y protegerá, debiendo informar acerca de las causas y finalidades de su intervención.”
Two more that shape the picture. Art. 14(a)(iii) — “Actuar con obediencia, subordinación y disciplina. En ningún caso, esto podrá ser justificación para acatar órdenes manifiestamente ilegales.” And Art. 14(d), the secreto profesional duty, which runs on the police and not on the public: “Guardar riguroso secreto de todo producto e información derivado de la función policial, investigativa y analítica.”
Finally, one prohibition that runs the other way — the uniform is theirs. Art. 1: “Su uniforme, distintivos, escudo, bandera e himno son de su uso exclusivo.” Art. 38: “Se prohíbe a personas individuales que no pertenezcan a la institución, el uso del uniforme reglamentario u otros similares que pueda llamar a confusión. Cualquier persona sin calidad, que vista el uniforme reglamentario, total o parcialmente será sancionada de acuerdo con lo establecido en las leyes.” Art. 38 also allows plain clothes by exception: the Director General “podrá autorizar que en determinadas tareas pueda prescindirse del uso del uniforme o del arma de fuego.”
The reglamento gap. Both Art. 13(h) and Art. 26 defer detail to a “reglamento respectivo”, and Art. 89 keeps older reglamentos alive during the transition. No PNC reglamento addressing photography or filming by members of the public was located as of 2026-08-12. What was searched: the Academia de la PNC media library, mingob.gob.gt (reachable, but the marco-legal path returns 404), uip.mingob.gob.gt (403) and www.pnc.gob.gt (does not resolve). That is an absence of a located instrument — not proof that no such instrument exists anywhere.
Row 2: what the Constitution grants, in its own words
This is the affirmative side, and it is genuinely strong text. It is also not a permission slip for any specific act, which is why it sits in its own section rather than being fused with the silence above.
Art. 35, Libertad de emisión del pensamiento, opening sentences:
“Es libre la emisión del pensamiento por cualesquiera medios de difusión, sin censura ni licencia previa. Este derecho constitucional no podrá ser restringido por ley o disposición gubernamental alguna.”
Then the clause that matters most to anyone documenting an official act:
“No constituyen delito o falta las publicaciones que contengan denuncias, críticas o imputaciones contra funcionarios o empleados públicos por actos efectuados en el ejercicio de sus cargos.”
Then access:
“Es libre el acceso a las fuentes de información y ninguna autoridad podrá limitar ese derecho.”
And the limit, in the same article:
“Quien en uso de esta libertad faltare al respeto a la vida privada o a la moral, será responsable conforme a la ley.”
Three neighbouring articles complete the constitutional picture:
| Article | Heading | The operative sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Art. 5 | Libertad de acción | “Toda persona tiene derecho a hacer lo que la ley no prohíbe; no está obligada a acatar órdenes que no estén basadas en ley y emitidas conforme a ella. Tampoco podrá ser perseguida ni molestada por sus opiniones o por actos que no impliquen infracción a la misma.” |
| Art. 33 | Derecho de reunión y manifestación | “Los derechos de reunión y de manifestación pública no pueden ser restringidos, disminuidos o coartados; y la ley los regulará con el único objeto de garantizar el orden público. Para el ejercicio de estos derechos bastará la previa notificación de los organizadores ante la autoridad competente.” |
| Art. 25 | Registro de personas y vehículos | “El registro de las personas y de los vehículos, sólo podrá efectuarse por elementos de las fuerzas de seguridad cuando se establezca causa justificada para ello. Para ese efecto, los elementos de las fuerzas de seguridad deberán presentarse debidamente uniformados y pertenecer al mismo sexo de los requisados, debiendo guardarse el respeto a la dignidad, intimidad y decoro de las personas.” |
| Art. 30 | Publicidad de los actos administrativos | “Todos los actos de la administración son públicos. Los interesados tienen derecho a obtener, en cualquier tiempo, informes, copias, reproducciones y certificaciones que soliciten y la exhibición de los expedientes que deseen consultar, salvo que se trate de asuntos militares o diplomáticos de seguridad nacional, o de datos suministrados por particulares bajo garantía de confidencia.” |
Art. 30 is the constitutional hinge between rows 1 and 3 of the table at the top: administrative acts are public except military and national-security matters. The Constitution itself treats the military differently.
The instrument we could not source. Art. 35 ends by delegating the whole subject: “Todo lo relativo a este derecho constitucional se regula en la Ley Constitucional de Emisión del Pensamiento.” No copy of that law’s text was located on any official portal as of 2026-08-12. What was tried: two OAS document paths (one 404; one returning HTTP 200 with an HTML body rather than the PDF it advertised — detected by reading the file’s magic bytes), Corte de Constitucionalidad document paths (404, and one portal path 403), Ministerio Público (404), the Academia de la PNC media library (empty result for that search term), the Congreso portal through a text proxy, and Internet Archive host queries (gateway timeouts, twice). So the single most load-bearing instrument on this topic is one whose text is not published where we could reach it. We will not paraphrase a law we have not read.
Row 3: the military, where actual offences exist
Now the part that carries real penalties. The Código Penal (Decreto 17-73) has a chapter on crimes against the security of the State, and three of its articles sit near the question of recording military things. They need reading with attention to their verbs.
| Article | Heading | The conduct it punishes | Penalty as the article states it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 366 | Revelación de secretos del Estado | “Quien, en cualquier forma, revelare secretos referentes a la seguridad del Estado, ya comunicando o publicando documentos, dibujos, planos u otros datos relativos al material, fortificaciones u operaciones militares” | “prisión de dos a cinco años y multa de quinientos a tres mil quetzales” |
| 367 | Levantamiento de planos de fortificaciones | “Quien, sin estar legalmente autorizado, levantare planos de fortalezas, cuarteles, buques o embarcaciones, arsenales, hangares, vía u otras obras militares” | “prisión de seis meses a dos años y multa de doscientos a dos mil quetzales” |
| 368 | Agravación | Arts. 366 and 367 committed “durante un conflicto armado” | “las penas se duplicarán” |
| 369(3) | Espionaje genérico | “Quien procurare u obtuviere, indebidamente, informaciones secretas, concernientes a la seguridad, a los medios de defensa o a las relaciones exteriores del Estado” | “prisión de seis meses a dos años y multa de doscientos a dos mil quetzales” |
| 370 | Agravación | Art. 369(3) committed “durante un conflicto armado” | “el doble de la pena” |
Four observations, all of them about what these articles do not say:
- None of them says “photograph”. A whole-code search returned zero occurrences of
filmarand zero ofimagen.fotografappears exactly twice in the entire Código Penal, and neither instance is military: Art. 167 (photographs as one of the enumerated means of committing calumnia, injuria or difamación) and Art. 222 (publishing photographs already lawfully in your possession that were not destined for publicity). - Art. 367’s verb is levantare planos — to draw up plans. Whether a photograph is a plano within Art. 367, or a photograph of a barracks is one of the “otros datos relativos al material, fortificaciones u operaciones militares” in Art. 366, is a question of legal interpretation. No published guidance applying either article to a photograph was located, and this page does not resolve it.
- Arts. 366 and 369(3) are built around secrecy — secretos, informaciones secretas. Something visible from a public road and something secret are different categories, and the articles are drafted around the second.
instalaciones militaresappears once in the whole code — in Art. 279(2), as an aggravating circumstance for daño, i.e. damaging them. Not recording them.
What we did not find on the military side. No MINDEF instrument addressing photography of military installations or personnel was located as of 2026-08-12. mingob.gob.gt was reachable but publishes no marco-legal index at the path tried, uip.mingob.gob.gt returned 403, and no Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional document was retrieved in this pass. So the instruments above are Ministerio Público and court territory — the criminal code — and we found nothing from the defence ministry itself. Treat that as a gap in our search, not as a finding that MINDEF has published nothing.
Drones are a separate regime with a separate authority. Airspace over military installations is the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil’s subject, not the Código Penal’s and not the PNC’s, and it has its own forms and restricted-area lists. Nothing on this page applies to a drone. That question is covered in drone rules in Guatemala, and no DGAC figure is restated here because DGAC’s own drones page served only a JavaScript shell when we checked on 2026-08-12.
Row 4: states of exception
Guatemala declares states of exception with some regularity, and one statute contains the only prior-censorship power we located anywhere in the corpus.
Ley de Orden Público, Decreto 7 of the Asamblea Constituyente. Its Article 1º sets the trigger: “Esta ley se aplicará en los casos de invasión del territorio nacional, de perturbación grave de la paz, de calamidad pública o de actividades contra la seguridad del Estado.” Article 2º (reformed by Art. 1º of Decreto 89-70) puts the classification in the Executive’s hands: “El Presidente de la República, en Consejo de Ministros, calificará las situaciones previstas en el Artículo anterior y, según su naturaleza o gravedad, emitirá el decreto que corresponda…”
Then Article 35, and the wording of its subject is the whole point:
“Mientras dure cualquiera de los estados de emergencia, los órganos de publicidad están obligados a evitar las publicaciones que puedan causar confusión o pánico o agraven la situación. En tales casos así como si comentaren tendenciosamente las circunstancias, el director será amonestado por la autoridad respectiva; y en caso de reincidencia, podrá imponerse censura previa al órgano de que se trate.”
The obligation runs on órganos de publicidad; the warning goes to el director; the prior censorship attaches to el órgano. That is drafted about media outlets and their directors. It does not name an individual with a camera. We are pointing that out as a reading of the text’s subject, not as a conclusion about how it would be applied.
Two related powers in the same statute: Art. 13(7) (estado de alarma) allows “Centralizar las informaciones relativas a la emergencia, en algún funcionario, dependencia u oficina pública”, and Art. 8º(3) (estado de prevención) allows “Limitar la celebración de reuniones al aire libre, las manifestaciones públicas u otros espectáculos y en su caso, impedir que se lleven a cabo, aun cuando fueren de carácter privado.” Art. 33 provides that people infringing emergency-decree provisions “podrán ser detenidas aun cuando establecieren su identidad, pero deberán ser puestas inmediatamente a disposición del juez de turno para que les imponga la sanción legal.”
Two flags on this statute, both of which a responsible page has to carry:
- It predates the current Constitution and cites the old one. Arts. 2º, 8º and 13 refer to “los Artículos 151 y 153 de la Constitución de la República” — the 1965 Constitution. The Constitution in force is the 1985 text quoted earlier. We are not going to silently renumber those cross-references; mapping them is a lawyer’s job.
- It sits in unresolved tension with Constitution Art. 35. The Constitution says the right “no podrá ser restringido por ley o disposición gubernamental alguna” and forbids “censura ni licencia previa”. The Ley de Orden Público provides for censura previa. Two instruments, one subject, and the hierarchy question belongs to the Corte de Constitucionalidad. We name both and resolve neither.
If it goes wrong: the articles, and their qualifiers
The batch brief for this page was explicit that we report the published rule and not what officers will do, and we are going to hold that line exactly. What follows is a list of articles with their own built-in qualifiers, quoted from the copy of Decreto 17-73 named in the sources. It is not a prediction, and it is not advice about how to behave.
| Article | Conduct as written | Penalty as written | The qualifier the article itself carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 409 Resistencia | “Quien se opusiere a la ejecución de un acto legal de funcionario, o de la autoridad o sus agentes, mediante violencia” | “prisión de uno a tres años” | requires “mediante violencia”, and an “acto legal” |
| 408 Atentado | “Quienes acometen a funcionario, a la autoridad o a sus agentes, o emplearen violencia contra ellos, cuando se hallaren en ejercicio de sus funciones” | “prisión de uno a tres años” | requires acometer or violence |
| 410 Agravaciones | applies to Arts. 408-409 | “se aumentarán en una tercera parte” | listed circumstances include armed commission and three or more people |
| 415(4) Desorden público | “Quienes impidieren o estorbaren a un funcionario el cumplimiento de un acto inherente a sus funciones” | “prisión de seis meses a un año y multa de cincuenta a quinientos quetzales” | requires impeding or obstructing, not observing |
| 414 Desobediencia | “Quien desobedeciere abiertamente una orden de un funcionario, autoridad o agente de autoridad, dictada en el ejercicio legítimo de sus atribuciones” | a fine, not prison — the copy we retrieved renders the range as “multa de cincuenta un mil quetzales”, with the connector missing from its text layer, so we do not expand it into a precise range | requires the order be “dictada en el ejercicio legítimo de sus atribuciones” |
| 412 Desacato a la autoridad | “Quien amenazare, injuriare, calumniare o de cualquier otro modo ofendiere en su dignidad o decoro, a una autoridad o funcionario en el ejercicio de sus funciones o con ocasión de ellas” | “prisión de seis meses a dos años” | read against Constitution Art. 35, which says publications containing denuncias, críticas o imputaciones against public officials for acts in office “no constituyen delito o falta” |
| 413 Prueba de la imputación | “Al acusado de injuria contra funcionario o autoridades públicas, sí se admitirá prueba sobre la verdad de la imputación si se tratare de hechos concernientes al ejercicio de su cargo. En este caso será absuelto si probare ser cierta la imputación.” | — | truth is admissible as a defence for official-conduct imputations |
A hard limit on that table. The copy of the Código Penal we retrieved is an unannotated consolidated text: it carries no “Reformado por…” notes anywhere and contains no asterisks. Decreto 17-73 dates from 1973 and has been amended repeatedly. We therefore quote these articles as they appear in the copy published on the Academia de la PNC portal and we do not assert that any of them is unreformed or currently in force in that wording. Article 412 in particular — a desacato offence sitting against a constitutional clause that decriminalises criticism of officials — is exactly the kind of provision whose status you should check with a Guatemalan lawyer rather than with a website.
For contrast, the Ley de Orden Público copy we used is reform-annotated (it prints “Reformado por…” and “Suprimido por…” inline), and Decreto 35-2024’s copy prints its suspensions with asterisks — which is why the reform statements about those two instruments in this page are made with confidence and the Código Penal ones are not.
What this page deliberately does not tell you
Being explicit about the withheld part is more useful than pretending the omission is not there:
- Not what officers or soldiers will do. No “usually”, no “expect”, no “they may ask”. The brief for this page ruled that out and it was right to: characterising enforcement behaviour is exactly where a page like this would start inventing.
- No tactical guidance. Nothing about where to stand, how to hold a phone, what to say, whether to hand over a device, or how to preserve footage. That is conduct advice, and this is a page about instruments.
- No inference from silence. Decreto 35-2024’s zero matches are a documented absence. An absence is not an authorisation, and we have not written one sentence that treats it as one.
- No claim about Expediente 8870-2024 beyond the wording of the annotation in the published text.
- No DGAC number. See the drone note above.
Adjacent pages
If your underlying question is about interacting with officials rather than about cameras, three neighbours cover the ground with their own sourcing: carrying your passport or ID in Guatemala has a section on the police specifically, driving in Guatemala covers checkpoints, and the safety hub carries the department-level data. For the airspace question, drone rules in Guatemala. For what you may carry rather than what you may record, pepper spray, tasers and knives.
Sources
- Constitución Política de la República de Guatemala (1985) — Articles cited: 5, 24, 25, 30, 33, 35.
https://www.oas.org/dil/esp/Constitucion_Guatemala.pdf— retrieved 2026-08-12 (70-page PDF, text layer verified). The OASjuridico/mla/sp/gtm/path used elsewhere on this site returned HTTP 522 on the same date, and Corte de Constitucionalidad document paths returned 404 / 403. - Ley de la Policía Nacional Civil, Decreto Número 35-2024 del Congreso de la República — consolidated text with provisional-suspension annotations, published on the Academia de la PNC portal,
portal.pnc.edu.gt. Articles cited: 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 21, 26, 27, 31, 38, 79, 80, 88, 89, 90. Retrieved 2026-08-12. Emitted 26 November 2024; sanctioned 6 December 2024. That copy is a commercial legal-database rendering carrying its own reproduction restriction and a named licensee, so it is cited rather than linked, and the licensee’s name is not reproduced. Suspension annotations all read “por el numeral romano I), del Expediente Número 8870-2024 el 15-02-2025”; the expediente file itself was not obtained. - Código Penal de Guatemala, Decreto No. 17-73 — copy published on the Academia de la PNC portal,
portal.pnc.edu.gt. Articles cited: 167, 219, 220, 222, 279, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 408, 409, 410, 412, 413, 414, 415. Retrieved 2026-08-12 (118-page PDF; one page failed text extraction and is not among the pages quoted). This copy carries no reform apparatus — searches for “Reformado por” returned 0 hits and the document contains 0 asterisks — so the articles are quoted as they appear in that copy, and no claim is made that any of them is unreformed. - Ley de Orden Público, Decreto Número 7 de la Asamblea Constituyente de la República de Guatemala — reform-annotated copy published on the Academia de la PNC portal,
portal.pnc.edu.gt. Articles cited: 1º, 2º, 8º, 13, 33, 35. Retrieved 2026-08-12. Arts. 2º, 8º and 13 each carry an inline reform note attributing the reform to Decreto 89-70 del Congreso de la República — Art. 2º to its Artículo 1º, Art. 8º to its Artículo 3º, Art. 13 to its artículo 5º; Art. 35 carries no reform note in that copy. Arts. 2º, 8º and 13 cross-refer to Articles 151 and 153 of the 1965 Constitution, not to the 1985 Constitution in force.
Not published / not found, as of 2026-08-12:
- The Ley Constitucional de Emisión del Pensamiento — the instrument Constitution Art. 35 delegates the entire subject to. No official-portal copy of its text was located. Tried: two OAS document paths (404; and one HTTP 200 whose body was HTML rather than the advertised PDF), Corte de Constitucionalidad paths (404 and 403), Ministerio Público (404), the Academia de la PNC media library (empty result set for that term), the Congreso portal through a text proxy, and Internet Archive host queries (504 gateway timeouts).
- Any PNC reglamento or protocol addressing photography or filming by members of the public. Searched: the Academia de la PNC media library,
mingob.gob.gt(reachable; the marco-legal path 404s),uip.mingob.gob.gt(403),www.pnc.gob.gt(does not resolve). - Any MINDEF instrument on photographing military installations or personnel.
- Any published guidance applying Código Penal Art. 366 or Art. 367 to a photograph rather than to a document, drawing or plan.
- Any body-camera deployment figure for the obligation created by Art. 80 of Decreto 35-2024.
General information for travellers, residents and journalists, current as of 2026-08-12, reporting published rules and documented absences from the instruments named above. It is not legal advice and it does not tell you what you may photograph. Two different regimes govern this subject: the Policía Nacional Civil under the Ministerio de Gobernación for policing, and the Ministerio Público and the courts for the Código Penal offences — and during a declared state of exception the Executive in Consejo de Ministros enters the picture under the Ley de Orden Público. Where an instrument is silent, this page says so; silence is not permission. Confirm anything that matters with a Guatemalan lawyer. En español: ¿Se puede fotografiar a la policía y al ejército en Guatemala?.
