The analysis Right to manifest without blockingof the National Economic Research Center (one hundred), showed that during the last ten years 4,420 blockages were recorded in Guatemala and that during 2023, in the government of Alejandro Giammattei, there was an increase in these.
Francisco Quezada, a hundred investigator, said that freedom of locomotion is a fundamental, indispensable right to enjoy other rights and recognized in article 26 of the Political Constitution of the Republic and other international instruments.
The analysis presented by the one hundred, this May 28, 2025, showed that, in the last decade, every year there were on average 442 blockages of the traffic roads. He added that 64% of the blockages were recorded in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The statistics reflect that it was during the government of Alejandro Giammattei when 3,38 blockages were registered, which represents 68.71% of the total accounted for between 2015 and 2024. While, in the government of Jimmy Morales, 854 were recorded, equivalent to 19.32%.
Quezada explained that the authorities must take stock and proportionality in how the right of demonstration and meeting can be enforced without totally diminishing the right to free locomotion.
“When there is a legitimate manifestation, they have to try to redirect these people so that they do not limit the freedom of others; for example, they are at the edge of the roads. That is a peaceful and without weapons manifestation,” Quezada argued.
He commented that the blockades have another intention and disguise themselves as a meeting or demonstration, but in those road closures there are barricades and violent people.
“The intentionality is another, because it is to put citizens to suffer on public roads so that the State sees them and access a request they have. So here the reason is a blackmail … from the beginning the blockade carries an intentionality, a intent and a criminal intention,” he argued.
Quezada said that in those blockades there are people guarding closures, ready to react and intimidate.
Sites with more blockages
Walter Menchú, a hundred investigator, said that the departments where the most events were recorded were:
- Suchitepéquez
- San Marcos
- Guatemala
- Alta Verapaz
- Quetzaltenango
- Retalhuleu
Menchú commented that there is a problem: that the right to manifest has become a crime when blocking traffic routes.
He mentioned that in August, September and October is when more road closures are recorded by the inhabitants.
In some cases they have been associated with the approval of the budget in Congress. For the 2021 to 2023, we saw that the months of October and September were recurring in blockages, said Menchú.
The hundred concluded that freedom of locomotion is a civil, human and public right, as it is a condition for the enjoyment of other fundamental and vital rights of the individual.
He explained that people who participate in the closure of roads “may imply the commission of violent crimes such as injuries, illegal arrests, aggravated damage, public disorder, sedition or even acts of terrorism, undercover under the appearance of protest.”
He commented that freedom of locomotion, as a fundamental human right, cannot be intervened by arbitrary decisions of the administration or individuals, except for exceptions justified in the law.
“It can be concluded that the celebration of meetings and public demonstrations can produce prolonged circulatory collapses. They must be prohibited,” said the analysis of one hundred.
He added that the authorities must prevent blockages and provide immediate protection to the population to free the roads “of the vexars produced by their illegal retention.”
In addition, he said that the Constitutional Court has recognized that public roads blocks violate rights such as freedom, security, health, work and peace of citizens.
BLOCK FROM 2015 TO 2024
- 2015 – 296
- 2016 – 222
- 2017 – 244
- 2018 – 110
- 2019 – 279
- 2020 – 224
- 2021 – 680
- 2022 – 893
- 2023 – 1,241
- 2024 – 232
Total: 4.420
Economic impact by blockages
For Héctor Fajardo, general director of the Central American Chamber of Transporters, blockages have economic consequences, but also affect the health of harmed people.
He explained that carriers cannot fulfill the contract or agreement with the companies to which they transfer products, which represents losses in potential future businesses.
Millionaire losses
“Estimated that every day we lose between US $ 300 and US $ 400 -q2 thousand 300 to Q3 thousand- per unit, due to the delay in road closures,” he acknowledged.
During the blockades of March 2025, business organizations reported that there were losses of up to Q1 thousand 200 million and that the impact for the national economy was calculated based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Guatemalans carried out road closures for two days, as a sample of rejection of the mandatory insurance imposed by the Government. The impact for the national economy, estimated depending on GDP, was calculated in Q600 million for each day of blocking, according to an analysis of the Chamber of Commerce of Guatemala (CCG), its union and subsidiaries.
The entity indicated on that occasion that the blockades mostly affected the trade and services sector, such as supermarkets, detail sales stores, shopping centers, restaurants and entertainment, in addition to social and business events.