⚠️ EMERGENCY — CALL NOW IF YOU ARE IN DANGER
Domestic Violence — PNC + MP Guatemala
If you CAN'T speak:
  • Dial 110 and leave the line open
  • If children are with you, priority is getting them to a safe place (neighbor, relative)
💰 Cost: Free · ⏱ Time: Immediate · 🆔 Verified: November 2026 · 📜 Legal basis: Decree 97-96

Domestic violence is regulated by Decree 97-96 (Law to Prevent, Sanction, and Eradicate Domestic Violence), and violence against women is a public-action crime under Decree 22-2008 (Law against Femicide). The PNC has a legal duty (Decree 97-96, Art. 10) to intervene, on its own initiative or when asked by the victim or a third person, to protect the person attacked even inside the home, and to detain the aggressor if caught in the act.

Summary: Call 110 (PNC) or 1572 (MP, women victims). You can report in writing or verbally, with or without a lawyer (Decree 97-96, Art. 3). Whoever takes the complaint must send it to a family or criminal court within 24 hours (Art. 4). The court orders security measures (removal from the home, no-contact orders, weapon seizure, provisional support) lasting 1 to 6 months, extendable (Art. 7-8). Women victims have a right to free legal assistance (Decree 22-2008, Art. 19). You are not alone.

Applies to: victims of physical, psychological, sexual, or patrimonial violence within the family group — spouses, partners, children, parents, siblings, elderly.

⚠️ Active emergency — what to do in the next 5 minutes

If you are in danger NOW

  1. Call 110 (PNC)
  2. If you can’t speak, leave the line open and place the phone near where the situation can be heard
  3. If you have an agreed family code (for example I need an ambulance or the Thursday thing is happening), use it
  4. Get the children out if any — trusted neighbor, close family, school
  5. If you can physically leave, leave — don’t wait for the abuser to allow it
  6. Don’t go back for material things — life first, things later

If the emergency already passed (last hours or days)

  1. Document immediately: photos of injuries, location, broken objects
  2. Find witnesses: neighbors, family, work colleagues
  3. Preserve digital evidence: messages, audio, screenshots of threats
  4. Get medical attention and keep every medical report and receipt — a court can order the aggressor to pay medical costs (Decree 97-96, Art. 7 o)
  5. File a formal complaint at any institution Decree 97-96 (Art. 4) names: the PNC, the MP (Fiscalía de la Mujer), the PGN, a family court, a Bufete Popular, or the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) — or online with the MP (“Registro de denuncia” on mp.gob.gt)
  6. Ask for security measures — the complaint must reach a family or criminal court within 24 hours (Art. 4), and duty justices of the peace handle cases that cannot wait for normal hours (Art. 6)

What counts as domestic violence?

Decree 97-96 (Art. 1) names four kinds of harm: physical, sexual, psychological and patrimonial. Any of them can be reported and can support a request for security measures. Examples of each:

1. Physical violence

  • Hitting, pushing, slapping, hair pulling
  • Throwing objects at you
  • Strangulation or attempts
  • Minor or serious injuries
  • Intentional burns
  • Use of weapons or threats with them

2. Psychological violence

  • Constant insults, humiliation, disqualification
  • Threats of death, harm, or taking the children away
  • Coercive control (what you wear, who you talk to, where you go)
  • Social isolation (prevents you from seeing family or friends)
  • Gaslighting (makes you doubt your sanity)
  • Obsessive surveillance (checking phone, GPS, calls)

3. Sexual violence

  • Forced sexual relations within marriage or partnership
  • Non-consensual touching
  • Exhibitionism or demand for sexual acts
  • Humiliating comparisons with other people
  • Denial of protection (contraceptive, condom) under coercion

4. Patrimonial / economic violence

  • Intentional destruction of your belongings (clothes, appliances, vehicle)
  • Withholding your salary or income
  • Absolute control of family money
  • Burning or destroying your personal documents (DPI, passport, diplomas)
  • Denying food or basic needs to you or the children

Requirements to file

  • Valid DPI (victim) — if destroyed, you can still file and request urgent replacement
  • Passport if foreigner
  • Abuser’s data: full name, DPI if known, address where they live
  • Description of the event: what happened, where, when, who witnessed it
  • Available evidence: photos of injuries, threatening messages, audio, video
  • If children are involved: names, ages, birth certificates

Important: none of the above is a condition for filing. Decree 97-96 lets you report in writing or verbally, with or without a lawyer (Art. 3), and obliges every institution listed in Art. 4 to register domestic-violence complaints (Art. 5). If an officer refuses, go to another of those institutions (the MP, for example) and report the refusal on 3032-7356, the number PNC publishes for complaints about its officers.

Step-by-step process

1. Initial 110 call or in-person at PNC sub-station

The PNC must intervene in domestic violence on its own initiative or when asked by the victim or a third person (Decree 97-96, Art. 10).

2. Statement

The PNC must write up a police report on what happened, gathering information from relatives, neighbours or other people present (Art. 10 c). You can ask to give your statement to a female officer.

3. Forensic medical exam (if there was physical or sexual violence)

Ask for a forensic medical exam so the injuries are on record for the case.

4. Request for security measures

Whoever receives the complaint must send it to a family or criminal court within 24 hours (Decree 97-96, Art. 4). The court can order one or more of these measures (Art. 7):

  • Removal from the home — the alleged aggressor must leave the shared home immediately; force is used if he resists
  • No-contact orders — barred from your permanent or temporary home and your workplace or place of study; forbidden to disturb or intimidate any family member
  • Provisional support — a provisional maintenance obligation under the Civil Code
  • Weapon seizure — his weapons are seized even if he holds a carry licence
  • Children — provisional suspension of his custody of minor children; suspension of visits where there was sexual aggression against minors
  • Property and costs — preventive attachment of his assets, exclusive use of the household goods for you, and payment of moving, repair, accommodation and medical costs

The measures last between one and six months and can be extended at your request (Art. 8). For women victims, the court must order them on the complaint alone (Decree 22-2008, Art. 9).

5. Support centres for women

Decree 22-2008 (Art. 16) obliges the State to fund the Centros de Apoyo Integral para la Mujer Sobreviviente de Violencia — integral support centres for women survivors, run by specialised women’s organisations, whose creation CONAPREVI promotes. If you leave home, take the essentials: documents (DPI, children’s birth certificates), medications, basic clothes, phone charger.

6. Public Ministry (MP) attention

The MP receives domestic-violence complaints through its Fiscalía de la Mujer (Women’s Prosecutor’s Office), its permanent attention service and its victim-attention office (Decree 97-96, Art. 4). If the victim is a minor and the aggression comes from whoever holds parental authority, the MP represents the child (Art. 3 f).

Women victims, or their families, have a right to free legal assistance from a public defender (Decree 22-2008, Art. 19).

7. Judicial process

Crimes under Decree 22-2008 are public-action crimes (Art. 5): the MP prosecutes them on its own initiative, so the case does not depend on the victim keeping her complaint alive. Prison terms under that law: 5-12 years for physical or sexual violence against a woman, 5-8 years for psychological violence, 5-8 years for economic violence, and 25-50 years for femicide (Art. 6-8).

Cost and timing

ItemDetail
LawyerNot required to file (Decree 97-96, Art. 3)
Legal assistance for women victimsFree, from a public defender (Decree 22-2008, Art. 19)
Complaint sent to a courtWithin 24 hours (Decree 97-96, Art. 4)
Duration of security measures1 to 6 months, extendable (Art. 8)

Common mistakes

  • Not documenting immediately — injuries fade; take photos NOW with your phone and back them up to the cloud
  • Deleting threatening messages “to forget” — they are key evidence; capture and save them
  • Accepting “reconciliation” without judicial measures — security measures last one to six months and can be extended (Decree 97-96, Art. 8)
  • Waiting until it’s serious — psychological and patrimonial violence count equally; you don’t need physical blows to file

Diaspora — reporting DV from the USA for a family member in Guatemala

If you live in the USA and your mother, sister, daughter, or partner in Guatemala is being a victim:

  • Ask someone in Guatemala to dial 110 — PNC publishes no international version of the number. Any family member, or any witness, can file on behalf of the victim (Decree 97-96, Art. 3).
  • 1572 — the MP line for women victims of violence; like 110 it is a short number, so have someone in Guatemala call it.
  • MP online complaint (mp.gob.gt, “Registro de denuncia”) — works from anywhere. PNC’s Comisaría Digital has no complaint form; online criminal complaints are filed with the MP
  • Guatemalan consulate (see list) — the nearest consulate is a point of contact from abroad