The College of Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala (Cang) sought to renew its internal regulations this June 19, but the union assembly was suspended due to a provisional protection.
The Fifth Administrative Chamber ordered the Cang to suspend the meeting that was intended to ensure that, starting this Friday, the Bar Association would have a renewal in its statutes that has not occurred since its creation in 1947.
The Cang is one of the professional associations that has the greatest impact on the political life of the country, since they appoint judges to the Constitutional Court (CC) and participate in the nomination commissions.
Patricia Gámez, president of the Cang Board of Directors, explains that the proposal seeks to renew the school, but also allow greater guarantees of transparency and democracy.
Why promote a reform of the school’s statutes?
Let us remember that the Cang was formally founded in 1947, it has very outdated regulations that do not take into account modernity or the consolidation of the institutionality that it needs.
The idea was to update the regulations to provide better service to members, have more certainty about the functions of the school and so on.
This is done in an assembly precisely so that the members, after discussing the statutes, which was given ample opportunity through work tables, discussion forums and others, to propose and contribute to this modification.
Consultants were used for this purpose, there was an opening for dialogue, in fact in the assembly it was also intended that this opening be given with more reason to update these regulations that are important for the school.
The proposals
What are the main changes to the statutes?
Some fundamental situations of the statutes contemplate the incorporation of the Electoral Tribunal as a body of the college, the previous statutes do not mention it at all and the Electoral Tribunal is an important element for the union democracy of the Cang.
The Mandatory Professional Association Law also contemplates the obligation to create a mechanism for the registration of trade union organizations.
The new statutes contained a mechanism for registering associations and union groups, this is to better coordinate and give more formality to this type of situations, only, as the statutes indicate, to coordinate joint activities for the benefit of the union.
Also the substantial change was in the Investment Advisory Committee, which always left two representatives elected by the assembly, two former presidents and one appointed by the Board of Directors who was an expert in economics and finance due to the great responsibility that weighs on the Investment Advisory Committee, remember that the school’s finances have grown substantially.
Also the strengthening of the Court of Honor through the creation of a sanction process to improve the mechanism, especially because there is no provision in the statutes related to what happens when the professional has already complied with the sanction that has been imposed. Then the mechanism is created to be able to note in the system that the sanction has already been fulfilled.
Amparo suspends the meeting of the Bar Association scheduled for this Friday, June 19, where it sought to present a proposal to reform the statutes of the bar. The protection was granted by the Fifth Administrative Chamber in favor of the lawyer Wilson López. pic.twitter.com/5qhMcNqtov
—Douglas Cuevas (@dcuevas_pl) June 18, 2026
Above all, the electronic notification mechanism, we now see that the Judicial Branch, the Constitutional Court and other justice institutions already create the electronic notification mechanism, but the Cang does not have a formal designation of notifications.
This regulatory provision is being created to modernize the issue of procedures in the court of honor. These would be the main ones, but as I explained, the intention is to generate a stronger institution in the school.
union campaign
In the Cang union elections, very expensive campaigns are usually seen and the origin of the financing is unknown. Do the new statutes address this issue, do they provide control, oversight and monitoring of campaign funds?
By creating the Electoral Tribunal as a body of the Cang, the functions are automatically generated to generate a greater verification mechanism, precisely to guarantee union democracy and the transparency of the processes.
I believe that this is a small part of the situations that have bothered some traditional groups, who are not in favor of the transparency and democracy of the school.
Some lawyers criticize Cang by indicating that an attempt was made to “surprise them” with a reform that was not socialized. How did you communicate the reform with the members?
Well, it was published on the Cang page, the proposed statutes were sent to the members’ personal emails. The school has always managed, through this Board of Directors, an open door mechanism.
Comments have been received, proposals have been received from those who have seen fit to make them, they have been taken into account, work tables have been made, it has been widely discussed, both in the school and with whoever has been available to approach to do so.
Nor has there been a specific indication of what the reason for the opposition is, specifically, if you see there is no founded reasoning to say that such a provision is what seems surprising to us, despite the fact that they are aware of the reform project.
With this new statute, what would be the biggest problem that is solved by having an outdated statute?
The institutionality of the school, the institutional strengthening of the school is extremely important. The incorporation of the specific regulations for the registration of associations and union organizations, which we know that at the level of the college’s work it is extremely important to have a rapprochement with them to work better with the members, as I said, the incorporation of the Electoral Tribunal is fundamental.
Could this allow us to verify where the money comes from in the different elections coordinated by the Cang?
This could lead to improving the election procedure and making the functions, the way it is carried out, transparent.
Yesterday, a protection from lawyer Wilson López, resolved by a Chamber, suspended the Cang Assembly. What wrong did that ampro expose?
His protection only contains the reason he points out, that the statutes indicate that the modification will be proposed by 20 members.
Let us remember that the Mandatory Professional Association Law, which is after the statutes of ’47, says that it is also the function of the Board of Directors to propose it.
Imagine that it is not the function of the Board of Directors to propose to the members the needs that it has detected as necessary to strengthen the school.
This provisional protection stopped the Assembly. What will the Cang be doing?
Of course there will be an appeal of the protection because we do not find that the reasonableness of granting it is fundamental and definitely the possibility of its re-call is completely valid.
