2020 in Guatemala


The following lists events in the year 2020 in Guatemala.

Incumbents

Events

January and February

March and April

  • March 2 – Pedro Muadi, former president of the Congress of Guatemala, is sentenced to 30 years of prison for corruption.
  • March 9 – Guatemala launches its first satellite, the Quetzal 1.
  • March 15 – The government announces the first death from COVID-19, an 85-year-old man from San Pedro Sacatepéquez, San Marcos who returned from Spain on March 6.
  • March 31 – A riot in a migrant detention center in Tenosique, Tabasco, Mexico, leaves a Guatemalan man dead and four people injured. The detainees were worried about a possible COVID-19 outbreak.
  • April 3 – 2,250 people have been arrested for violating the curfew imposed since mid-March while 5,705 people have been detained for leaving their homes without justification.
  • April 2 – Rodolfo Galdamez, the technical deputy minister of health, and Hector Marroquin, the administrative deputy minister of health, are fired amid revelations of an alleged corruption ring inside the ministry.
  • April 23
  • *Gilmer Barrios, a Guatemalan immigrant to the United States, was arrested on March 23 in southern California and deported to Tijuana, Mexico, on March 23. He spent 21 days in Mexico before Guatemalan Consul General was able to get him returned to his home in San Diego.
  • *The United Nations Commission on Human Rights calls on Mexican and Central American governments to halt deportations during the coronavirus pandemic. 2,500 migrants are stuck in Panama because Honduras has closed its border. Mexico has dumped migrants in Guatemala, but Guatemala has not let them in. On April 23 the organization helped 41 migrants return to El Salvador from Mexico.
  • April 23 – 26 – 2020 Pan Am Badminton Championships in Guatemala City.
  • April 26 – Mexico′s National Institute of Migration (INM) empties the 65 migrant detention centers it has across the country by returning 3,653 people to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in the hope of preventing outbreaks of COVID-19.

May and June

  • May 1 – Santa Catarina Palopó, Sololá Department, and other Maya communities spurn returned migrants, threatening some with burning their homes or lynching as fear spreads about more than 100 deportees from the United States who tested positive for the coronavirus. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said deportees were screened for elevated temperatures and symptoms associated with COVID-19 before a plane with 89 Guatemalans, a dozen of them minors, arrived in the country on April 30.
  • June 8 – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cámbara, private secretary to former President Álvaro Colom is ineligible for admission to the United States because of corruption. The ban also applies to Alejos Cámbara's family.

July to September

  • July 29, 2019 – May – 2019–20 Liga Nacional de Guatemala.
  • July 13 – COVID-19 pandemic: A report by The New York Times and the Marshall Project indicates that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement worsened the spread of the pandemic by deporting sick people to their countries of origin, including Guatemala. Guautemala is the only country that protested against the practice.
  • July 21 – The Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo says that during the first six months of 2020, 262 minors have been murdered, 138 with firearms. Choking was the second cause of death with 66, and drowning was third with 24. There have been 1,638 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among minors.
  • July 24 – August 9 – Guatemala at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
  • August 16 – Forty Qʼeqchiʼ families were forced to leave the Cubilgüitz coffee farm, which they had been occupying in protest for fifteen years, after an armed group set fire to several residences.
  • August 18 – A 5.6 magnitude earthquake in Escuintla Department with no reports of damages of or injuries.
  • August 19 – The United States deports 127 Guatemalans, all certified as having recuperated from COVID-19. 100 Guatemalans had been deported from Mexico on August 16. 4,392 Guatemalans have been deported from the two countries since April 1.
  • August 22 – Dozens of protesters demand the resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei for mismanaging the response to the pandemic. Guatemala reports 67,856 cases of infection and 2,580 deaths.
  • September 12 – COVID-19 pandemic: With nearly 3,000 deaths, more Guatemalans have died than in other counties in Central America. Guatemala is second in confirmed cases, behind Panama's 100,000. Overall, the public health situation seems to be improving, as La Aurora International Airport is due to open on September 18.
  • September 15 – The Google Doodle is dedicated to Guatemala.
  • September 18 – COVID-19 pandemic: President Alejandro Giammattei says he has tested positive for COVID-19. Guatemala reports 84,344 and 3,076 deaths.

October to December

  • October 19 – Day of the 1944 Revolution
  • November 20 – Vice President Guillermo Castillo says he and President Giammattei should both resign in opposition to the 2021 budget that calls for large cuts in social benefits.
  • November 1 – All Saints' Day
  • November 21 – 2020 Guatemalan protests begin.
  • December 5 – Protesters demand the resignation of President Giammattei, Vice President Castillo, and Congressional leaders.
  • December 25 – Christmas
  • December 28 – The U.S. cuts military aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Deaths