Pressure for New Laws to Combat Smuggling

Because the current legal framework is ineffective, Guatemalan entrepreneurs in the food sector are asking the government to draft a new law that would criminalize smuggling and also consider it a matter of national security.

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Directives of the Guatemalan Chamber of Food and Beverages (CGAB) assure that the current Decree 58-90 "Law Against Fraud and Contraband" is obsolete and does not allow for direct and frontal combat against contraband.

Enrique Lacs, executive director of the CGAB, told Prensalibre.com that "... at the moment, the current legislation against smuggling is inefficient because in some cases it encourages this law, because judges do not resolve the cases presented to them in a uniform manner."

Lacs added that "... there is a total inefficiency of the current legal framework, at the time of applying the legislation, in terms of the destruction or final destination of the goods that are the object of smuggling, particularly those that represent a serious health risk."

Coincon, which is made up of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Nation, the Ministry of Finance and the private sector, plans to submit a legislative initiative in the coming months to create legal instruments to combat smuggling.

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