LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution provides for freedom of expression and freedom of religion, stating, “Every person has the right to practice their religion or belief in public within the limits of public order and the respect due to the beliefs of other creeds.” The constitution recognizes the distinct legal personality of the Catholic Church, and the government has a concordat with the Holy See.

The constitution does not require religious groups to register for the purpose of worship, but groups seeking to obtain tax-exempt status or to sign any kind of legal contract must register with the government. The Catholic Church receives these benefits without the requirement to register. To register, a religious group must file with the Ministry of Interior a copy of its bylaws, evidence that it is a newly established legal entity that intends to pursue religious objectives, and a list of its initial membership with at least 25 members. The ministry may reject a registration application if it believes the group does not appear to be devoted to a religious objective, appears intent on undertaking illegal activities, or engages in activities that could threaten public order. Most applications are approved after a lengthy process. All religious groups must obtain the permission of the respective municipal authorities for construction and repair of properties and for holding public events, consistent with requirements for nonreligious endeavors.

The constitution protects the rights of Indigenous groups to practice their traditions and forms of cultural expression, including spiritual practices. The law permits Mayan spiritual groups to conduct ceremonies at Mayan historical sites on government-owned property free of charge with written permission from the Ministry of Culture. Anyone seeking access to the sites located in national parks or other protected areas, however, is required to pay processing or entrance fees.

The criminal code penalizes with one-month to one-year prison sentences the interruption of religious celebrations, “offending” a religion – which the law leaves vague – and the desecration of burial sites or human remains; however, charges are seldom filed under these laws.

According to the constitution, no member of the clergy of any religion may serve in the government as president, vice president, government minister, judge, magistrate, or tax superintendent or part of the Tax Authority Directory.

The law provides for at least one “religious space, according to [the prison’s] capacity,” in each prison. Chaplain services are limited to Catholic chaplains and nondenominational (usually evangelical) Protestant chaplains. The law does not specify that prisons must provide access for prisoners of minority religious groups to spiritual counselors from their faith.

The constitution permits, but does not require, religious instruction in public schools. There is no national framework for determining the nature or content of religious instruction. In general, public schools have no religious component in the curriculum. Private religious schools are permitted and are found in all areas of the country. Religious instruction is allowed, but attendance is optional in private religious schools.

The government requires foreign missionaries to obtain tourist visas to enter the country; visas are renewable every three months. After renewing their tourist visas once, foreign missionaries may apply for temporary residence for up to two years; the residential permit is renewable.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

On January 23, Chicoyoguito community members, whom in 2021 authorities arrested for attempted trespassing on land that community members considered sacred spiritual sites, reached an agreement to avoid going to trial by pleading guilty to some of the trespassing charges. Following the agreement, all other detained members were released from pretrial detention.

According to evangelical Protestant groups, non-Catholic religious groups still had to follow a vaguely defined process involving several steps that could take up to two years and cost approximately 10,000 quetzals ($1,300) to register with the Ministry of Government and be able to sign any legal contracts or receive tax-exempt status. In May, former president Giammattei signed an executive order to reduce the amount of time it takes religious groups to register. According to Commissioner to the President on Religious Freedom Robin García, it was still too early to determine whether the executive order had led to a reduction in the time required for a religious group to register.

Although the constitution prohibits clergy from serving in executive office, evangelical Pastor Guerra Lemus ran for vice president alongside presidential candidate and former first-lady Sandra Torres in the June national elections. Guerra defended his candidacy, stating his view that the country’s constitution only applied to Catholic priests. The Supreme Court of Justice and TSE declined to consider constitutional challenges to Guerra’s candidacy. Guerra’s bid as vice president was ultimately unsuccessful, but the judiciary and electoral commission’s inaction likely contributed to public distrust in the electoral process.

The draft law on sacred sites, which the Committee on the Designation of Sacred Sites (COLUSAG) submitted to the country’s congress in 2008, was still pending at year’s end. According to a Mayan spiritual leader involved in drafting the bill, if passed, the resulting law would provide legally protected status for Mayan spiritual sites, making it a crime to damage or remove spiritual objects from them. The law would also establish a national council with legal authority to name holy sites and credential Mayan spiritual practitioners for the purposes of granting them access to protected sites.

Some Mayan leaders maintained that the government limited their access to several religious sites on government-owned property and required them to pay to access the sites, even though the Ministry of Culture approved free access to credentialed Mayan spiritual practitioners. The same leaders said the government did not provide credentials in a timely manner to all practitioners who wished to access the sites. The government continued to deny any access limitations while noting that anyone seeking access to the sites located in national parks or other protected areas had to pay processing or entrance fees. In Tikal, a complex of Mayan pyramids dating from 200 A.D. and one of the most sacred sites for Mayan spirituality, the access fee was approximately 20 to 30 quetzals ($3 to $4), which, according to members of COLUSAG, was prohibitive for many Indigenous community members.

During the year, the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty, established through executive agreement in 2022, did not become a full commission. In 2022, then-President Giammattei appointed Robin Garcia, an evangelical Protestant pastor in Antigua, as commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty and head of the Multireligious Table (La Mesa Multireligiosa). The Multireligious Table included representatives of registered religious groups across a broad spectrum of faiths. As commissioner, Garcia served as a conduit to the president. Faith actors continued to state that the commission should invite Mayan Cosmovision representatives to be fully inclusive and representative of the country’s society. The commissioner and Mayan spiritual guides met in July and August, but Mayan spiritual guides did not participate in meetings with the Multireligious Table. Commissioner Garcia said they did not want to participate in part because they did not have a single leader who could represent the diversity of concerns and beliefs of the Mayan Cosmovision, which he likened to a philosophy rather than a religion. The Multireligious Table, however, included seven representatives of different evangelical Protestant associations. While certain minority religions said the commissioner and Multireligious Table considered their concerns, other interfaith actors said the primary role of this interfaith group was to build political favor with evangelical Protestant churches. For this reason, Mayan spiritual guides reported that they did not believe the Multireligious Table would genuinely represent their concerns.

During the year, the Multireligious Table met monthly, and former President Giammattei attended their meetings every other month. In March, Commissioner Garcia and the government organized the first Latin American Symposium on Religious Freedom, which included representatives from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and a representative from Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religious Studies. Attendees discussed legal protections and data collection methods across Latin America to promote religious freedom and met with President Giammattei and other government officials. On October 25, the Multireligious Table convened religious representatives to commemorate International Day of Religious Freedom.