The Preventive Penal Law Against Communism ( es, Ley Preventiva Penal Contra el Comunismo) was a Guatemalan

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used ...

passed by the

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

of Carlos Castillo Armas on 24 August 1954. The decree was preceded by the formation of the

National Committee of Defense Against Communism {{Short description, State-security committee in Guatemala The National Committee of Defense Against Communism ( es, Comité Nacional de Defensa contra El Comunismo) was a committee formed on 19 July 1954 in Guatemala by president Carlos Castillo a ...

. The Preventive Penal Law Against Communism officially prohibited any kind of communist activity and established a blacklist of active communists. Around 70,000 Guatemalans engaging or suspected of engaging in communist activities were

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...

ed under the law. Another 8,000 were arrested, and an estimated 8,000-10,000 were forced into exile.Hey, Hilde (1995)
''Gross Human Rights Violations: A Search for Causes : A Study of Guatemala and Costa Rica''.
The Hague, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (Klower Law International). p. 34. . This decree was also used to suspend

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

References

See also