Arraigo in Guatemala must be classified as a precautionary measure, that is, a form of temporary coercion that allows the jurisdictional body to keep a person tied to a judicial process while the relevant matter is resolved, a way to ensure the results of the process.
It must be differentiated, a priori, from the common root with the one determined by a Criminal Court Judge, and this in the understanding that in the criminal field it is nothing more than a prohibition to leave the country, while, in general terms, for all the other branches of law, the arraigo is eminently precautionary, not decisive.
The common root can be requested when a person intends to file a lawsuit and considers that the defendant could evade justice by physically moving away from the national territory, which would create an injustice since the scope of the jurisdictional bodies also has territorial limits.
In such a way that the person against whom the arraigo is decreed cannot leave the country, unless he or she attends the process and proposes another person to respond during the trial during his or her absence.
In Guatemala, it is common for the arraigos to be directed against people who face executive trials, summary trials, or in other cases, employers who are sued for criminal reasons. labor.
The judicial criterion is that, when there are lawsuits against individuals, it is common to grant precautionary measures of seizure of bank accounts, these being the most common, even though the specialty of each precautionary measure should be decisive to grant a measure.
How to Raise a Root
However, despite the fact that any person may be subject on a certain occasion to being imposed a precautionary measure, it is important to highlight that in the case of arraigo, this can be substituted, in the event that the defendant has the obligation or urgency to leave the country.
This substitution is carried out by signing a Judicial Mandate with Representation, in favor of a lawyer, who can represent the person in custody in the trial in which said arrest was ordered. This mandate must be divided into a public deed and must be registered in the Electronic Registry of Powers of Attorney and Mandates, a registry that can sometimes take two or three days.
Once the mandate has been registered, a brief must be submitted to the Court issuing the arrest warrant, appearing in the process and requesting that it have the now mandated attorney as its representative and that the precautionary measure decreed be lifted.
Finally, the official letter that lifts the precautionary measure must be presented to the General Directorate of Migration, with the sole objective of lifting it.
This procedure can normally take one to two weeks, which is why it is prudent to maintain continuous monitoring of any arraigo order when planning a trip abroad. Anyone can check if they have roots at the following address: root consultation.
