The Preventive Penal Law Against Communism () was a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

passed by the

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

Carlos Castillo Armas Carlos Castillo Armas (; 4 November 191426 July 1957) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the far-right Nationa ...

on 24 August 1954. The decree was preceded by the formation of the National Committee of Defense Against Communism. 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 of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

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 legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

References

1954 in law Anti-communism in Guatemala Cold War Political and cultural purges Political repression in Guatemala {{Guatemala-stub

See also

References