President Bernardo Arevalo points the order after no less than seven law enforcement officials killed in obvious reprisal for authorities quelling riots, ending hostage-taking in three prisons.
Revealed On 19 Jan 2026
Guatemala’s president has declared a state of emergency following a weekend eruption of violence throughout which gang members took dozens of hostages throughout three prisons and killed at least seven police officers within the capital in obvious retribution, after the authorities regained management of amenities the place inmates had rioted.
President Bernardo Arevalo issued a 30-day order on Sunday, which restricts civil liberties and permits safety officers to arrest or query people with out prior court docket approval. The emergency order takes fast impact, though it nonetheless must be accepted by Guatemala’s legislature.
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“These murders had been carried out with the intention of terrorising the safety forces and the inhabitants in order that we surrender within the struggle in opposition to gangs and their regime of terror. However they are going to fail,” Arevalo mentioned in a nationwide tackle.
The president mentioned all hostages had been freed and declared three days of state mourning following the assaults.
The jail riots started on Saturday after the directors moved to restrict the privileges of gang leaders, together with Aldo Duppie, the imprisoned chief of Guatemala’s Barrio 18 gang.
Barrio 18 and its rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) had been designated as “international terrorist organizations” by the administration of United States President Donald Trump in September, adopted by Guatemala’s Congress a month later.
Gang-affiliated inmates took 46 jail guards and employees hostage throughout three prisons in and round Guatemala Metropolis on Saturday, together with the maximum-security jail holding Duppie, who is healthier identified by his nickname El Lobo or The Wolf.
The riot at El Lobo’s jail was damaged up by a lightning raid early on Sunday morning by police and the navy, adopted by raids on two extra prisons the identical day. The Barrio 18 chief was photographed within the custody of safety forces sporting a blood-stained shirt.
Shortly after the raids ended, retaliatory assaults started on law enforcement officials, killing no less than seven and injuring 10, in line with authorities. Some media experiences listed the variety of deaths as eight law enforcement officials and one suspected gang member.
Inside Minister Marco Antonio Villeda earlier linked the law enforcement officials’ deaths to gang reprisals “in response to the actions the Guatemalan state is taking in opposition to them”.
The military will “stay on the streets” of Guatemala to proceed its crackdown on gang members, in line with Defence Minister Henry Saenz.
The US Embassy in Guatemala Metropolis on Sunday lifted its “shelter-in-place order” issued for employees over the weekend following “coordinated, armed assaults on police in a number of zones of Guatemala Metropolis”.
