Report on Citizenship Law: Guatemala mayors is perhaps the most conflictive arena in the whole country, since the group that access local power can distribute resources discretionally in a much more extensive manner. And one of the defects of several electoral processes has been to bring groups outside the municipality to vote for a candidate. This defect was based on the fact that municipal bodies were in charge of the Citizen Registry and issuance of identity documents. Although the law for the issuance of identity document has been modified, it remains an important defect that affects voting. 5. Conclusions Similar to other Latin America states, the republican system in Guatemala (and Central America) relied on the concept of ius soli to guarantee rights as citizens for those born in the territory. This condition was also the basis of the incipient Central American and Guatemalan nationalism, that is, territory as part of the nationalist imaginary. The issuance of state and federal constitutions (1824-1825) thus marked the first stages of public life. As for the foreigners who came to Guatemala during the years of the Federation (1824-1839), they managed to find a space within legislation by using the opportunity to become “neighbours, as a way of gaining local political influence, as the study by Jordana Dym (2008) suggests. However, in the same way, many of these foreigners maintained the inaccuracy of their citizenship ascription to take advantage of the protection provided by the first foreign consuls, in order to avoid forced loans or the requirement of resources. From a long-term perspective, it becomes visible that the principles of ius solis and ius sanguinis have been a part of the mixed model that defines Guatemala today. To reach this point, the last stages of the nineteenth century, with the formation of the liberal model, left their mark on this trajectory. Throughout the nineteenth century, governments imposed limitations on constitutional texts and other laws to reduce access to citizenship. Examples like that of the military between 1871 and 1885 show this situation. Women, like other displaced sectors of the Guatemalan population, were not recognised as citizens during most of the Republican period. It is in 1944 that women acquired the right to vote. For this reason, the constitutional text of 1985 is crucial because it broadened the recognition of citizenship rights generally. If we pay attention to what the text says, it differs from other constitutions in that it generalises access to citizenship. However, as other authors have established, the foundations of the Constitution also allow for guardianship, but in this case dressed in citizenship language coated in the “protection” of indigenous populations. The great challenge of citizenship in Guatemala is to meet the requirements established by migration. On the one hand, population passing through Guatemala faces serious problems because it does not guarantee minimum rights for those who pass through its territory. As mentioned in the text, this is by the difficulties for registering births. On the other hand, the non-acceptance of the exercise of political rights for Guatemalans who are outside the territory, for the most part in the United States, is a clear sign of the contradiction between the law (guarantee of nationality 14 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/2 - © 2020 Author

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