President Bernardo Arevalo issues the order after at least seven police officers killed in apparent reprisal for authorities quelling riots, ending hostage-taking in three prisons.
Published On 19 Jan 2026
Guatemala’s president has declared a state of emergency following a weekend eruption of violence during which gang members took dozens of hostages across three prisons and killed at least seven police officers in the capital in apparent retribution, after the authorities regained control of facilities where inmates had rioted.
President Bernardo Arevalo issued a 30-day order on Sunday, which restricts civil liberties and allows security officers to arrest or question individuals without prior court approval. The emergency order takes immediate effect, although it still needs to be approved by Guatemala’s legislature.
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“These murders were carried out with the intention of terrorising the security forces and the population so that we give up in the fight against gangs and their regime of terror. But they will fail,” Arevalo said in a nationwide address.
The president said all hostages had been freed and declared three days of state mourning following the attacks.
The prison riots began on Saturday after the administrators moved to limit the privileges of gang leaders, including Aldo Duppie, the imprisoned leader of Guatemala’s Barrio 18 gang.
Barrio 18 and its rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) were designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the administration of United States President Donald Trump in September, followed by Guatemala’s Congress a month later.
Gang-affiliated inmates took 46 prison guards and staff hostage across three prisons in and around Guatemala City on Saturday, including the maximum-security prison holding Duppie, who is better known by his nickname El Lobo or The Wolf.
The riot at El Lobo’s prison was broken up by a lightning raid early on Sunday morning by police and the military, followed by raids on two more prisons the same day. The Barrio 18 leader was photographed in the custody of security forces wearing a blood-stained shirt.
Shortly after the raids ended, retaliatory attacks began on police officers, killing at least seven and injuring 10, according to authorities. Some media reports listed the number of deaths as eight police officers and one suspected gang member.
Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda earlier linked the police officers’ deaths to gang reprisals “in response to the actions the Guatemalan state is taking against them”.
The army will “remain on the streets” of Guatemala to continue its crackdown on gang members, according to Defence Minister Henry Saenz.
The US Embassy in Guatemala City on Sunday lifted its “shelter-in-place order” issued for staff over the weekend following “coordinated, armed attacks on police in several zones of Guatemala City”.
