The demand has pushed the growth of the private security sector to the point that around the 110 thousand registered guards and not registered almost tripled the 42 thousand agents of the National Civil Police (PNC).
The illegal operation of private security guards that is obvious is a problem identified both between the authorities and groups of service providers.
Until April 2025, the General Directorate of Private Security Services (DIGESSP) had 273 authorized private security companies registered and 23 thousand 872 guards. In 2023 there were 259 service providers.
In addition, for each agent an average of three firearms of different calibers are recorded. According to the DIGESSP, private security companies report 109 thousand 173 firearms. Approximately 30% are revolvers, 49% shotguns and 21% guns.
Until December 2023, companies had reported to the DIGESSP that had stolen 17,378 weapons and 390 more lost them.
The illegal operation of private security services puts people’s lives and security at risk, says the head of the DIGESSP, Jorge Santizo and points out that the challenge as a sector is that all guards and companies are regulated, to prevent users from hiring people without experience or with a criminal and police record.
The hiring of unregistered guards is a danger, Santizo exemplifies, because they know the tenants of the condominiums and shops, and could use that knowledge to commit criminal acts.
César Mérida, of the Association of Professionals for Risk Prevention and Integral Protection (Apripri), commented have identified the irregular service of at least 90 thousand guards. He adds that some companies do not register private guards to evade the payment of operations licenses, salary benefits for workers, taxes to the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT) and the registration of personnel at the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGSS).
According to the calculations that DIGESSP has made together with the business chambers, the hiring of a guard has an approximate monthly cost of between Q7 and Q8 thousand, paying the minimum wage and warns that those who charge less than that price are probably operating irregularly.
“Being able to operate without any registration, without any control, comes to offer services that are probably cheaper, but that fail to comply with the regulations and are probably in illegality,” the official acknowledged.
Supervision capacity
The director said that they are not aware of the businesses where these illegal companies could be operating, because their powers do not allow them to carry out investigations, although they have proceeded to sanction and issue complaints for these facts.
The General Directorate of Private Security Services indicated that they currently have 50 people, in different working groups, carried out by supervisions. During the last two years they have not been able to supervise 100% of those registered companies, according to statistics.
“We act when people issue a complaint to the institution. We carry out the supervision and issue the sanctions,” he acknowledged.
DIGESSP statistics show that in 2023 they carried out 114 ex officio supervisions and 85 for complaints. The following year there were 139 ex officio and 113 because citizens complaints.
During these visits to companies and areas where private security guards were, they issued 60 sanctions in 2023, 65 in 2024 and until April of this year they have been 15.
“The fines can range from 10 to 20 minimum wages, according to the type of fault committed,” he said.
Companies that operate illegally can be sanctioned with Q100 thousand fine and a sentence of six to 12 years in prison, he detailed.
According to article 66 of the law that regulates private security services, any person who provides or acquires the service without authorization or license issued by the DIGESP commits the crime of illegal provision of private security service.
How security companies operate illegally
Mérida said that one of the great challenges faced by private security companies is unfair competition, and that this could be related to the licensing authorization process by the DIGESSP.
He added that this has led to companies already authorized giving the operating license to people without experience or training in security.
“There is a failure from the process of creating the same security companies or the lack of audit that has to be carried out. New security companies are emerging daily, but the operational scope of DIGESSP, who regulates security companies, limits him to taking certain actions such as the cancellation of the company,” said Mérida.
On April 28, the PNC captured the private security guard Edgar Estuardo Méndez, 52, to carry a revolver in drunk. The detainee was dressed in the uniform of the private security company Comprehensive, business, corporate, private, SA (SIECOP).
The DIGESSP reported that the SIECOP company does not appear in the records of private security companies. “It is important to indicate that the SIECOP company currently does not have a current operation license,” Santizo said.
The Private Security Companies union said that DIGESSP must be strengthened to agree a special unit that monitors the complaints and carry out inter -institutional operations with the support of the PNC and MP.
“This would allow illegal services to be attacked at the root, since captures by flagrant actions would be carried out, and this would create awareness of users about the risk involved in hiring this type of services, since Decree-Law 52-2010, in its article 66, stipulates sanctions,” said the union.
The association commented that it has been identified that some companies legally registered in the DIGESSP irregularly subcontract to others to provide security in schools, grocery stores, shopping centers and other types of shops.
“The risk for the subcontracting companies is in two way. First, the improvisation of security in companies that hire services, and that puts the lives of Guatemalans at risk, because they lack a contingency plan before an incident,” he said.
In addition, Mérida said that unfair competition happens because entrepreneurs have not understood the responsibility of private security services that are hired.
“They are always raffling the fate of how to reduce their costs and pay less in terms of services. There are companies that charge Q4 thousand for a security guard and it is because they do not pay the benefits to the agents,” he said.
He added that it is a latent risk that at least 90 thousand guards are not registered, because there is no control by the authorities.
He commented that, not paying benefits to the guards, such as IGSS, vacations and extra hours, a constant rotation of personnel is generated.
“The subcontracting of these services has become every more common month, and the way it could be regulated is to give the necessary tools to the entity – Digessp – to act,” he said.
Apripri said that an analysis of the regulations and the costs of operation licenses should be made, so that entrepreneurs do not see it as an impediment to register.
Research against private security companies
In March 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime of the Public Ministry informed that they carried out the largest “largest operation against arms trafficking”. During 387 raids, they seized 138 firearms and dismantled a private security company.
The prosecutors explained that this company registered with the Department of Weapons and Munitions at least 900 weapons, and used false documents to obtain lucrative contracts and benefits.
In November of that same year, the PNC seized 410 firearms to a private security company that operated illegally in Santa Catarina Pinula and Zona 17 capital.
Complaints of citizens and guards
Santizo commented that identifying companies that operate illegally is a task that involves management, companies, guards and citizens.
The official said that Guatemalans can report condominium agents, shopping centers, schools and other businesses to 1578, sending a letter to the headquarters of the institution in zone 8 capital or email.
In addition, the guards can also denounce entrepreneurs anonymously.
He commented that companies that wish to hire private security can consult the DIGESSP page, where there is a list of those who do meet permits.
More supervisors in the interior of the country
Santizo said that between August 2024 and March 2025, an exercise was done with government institutions, companies and who hire private security to prepare a policy to strengthen DIGESSP.
He explained that the General Directorate of Weapons and Ammunition Control, the Ministry of Labor, the Attorney General’s Rights, the National Civil Police and civil society participated.
It is a 10 -year strategic plan to address the problems through action axes.
The DIGESSP plan is to implement supervision offices in the east and west of the country for which it is expected to hire 20 people.
“That will allow us to have access, a reaction and more immediate attention. We want to reach the 273 companies in a year, to make an ex officio supervision during that period and advance in the verification processes, which have increased in relation to the complaints, and that is positive,” he explained.
Santizo said that the short -term goal is that all management procedures are online, and that to date they have advanced in 50% with the implementation of that project.
“I always tell the people of the address: they have to be known and aware that a bad job, a bad supervision can end up violating the safety of someone,” he said.