NOTE:  Statistically, Guatemala is less crime-infested than most other Latin American countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela.  Violent crime against tourists, meanwhile, is relatively rare.  We therefore think it appropriate and necessary to direct most of our comments and recommendations toward purse snatching and pickpocketing, which continue to be a real and maybe even a growing problem.  This is a tragedy for poor Guatemalans who sometimes have nothing less than their daily sustenance lifted from their pockets.  For foreign visitors, meanwhile, such forms of petty robbery represent a truly significant inconvenience.  Fortunately,  however, simple precautions can dramatically reduce the possibility of this level of street crime, and ensure that if it does happen the loss will not be needlessly painful. 

What we would wish to emphasize is that while a number of Centro Maya students have had bags snatched or wallets picked, and several years ago one small group hiking in a particular risky park was accosted by a smiling armed bandit and relieved of their cash and cameras (he let them remove the film before taking the cameras), the vast majority of visitors are not touched by delinquency of any sort.  So the list below should not be understood as a promise of danger in the streets of Guatemala, but as a kind of prophylaxis to guard against exposure to the disease of crime.  While the exposure may be unlikely, the benefits are well worth the cost of attention paid up front to little details.

List of things you should do before coming to Guatemala (or anywhere else):

• Forget about carrying a large amount of cash (more than several hundred dollars).
• Forget about bringing any unessential valuables like jewelry.
• Make copies of your passport - one to leave with a loved one back at home and at least one to carry with you (in some place other than where you keep your passport).
• Have a convenient system in place for keeping track of the numbers of travelers checks.
• Have a backup system in place for keeping track of all numbers of all credit cards and travelers checks.
• Have a convenient system ready to immediately cancel any or all credit cards that might be stolen.
• If you are thinking of carrying a debit card, check with the issuing bank to determine the maximum liability.  If there IS no reasonable maximum liability (for credit cards issued in the U.S., the maximum liability is $50), think LONG & HARD about using some other way of accessing money in Guatemala.
• Make sure you have some way of getting more money fast in Guatemala should all your money transfer devices run down the street with a purse snatcher or pickpocket.
• Consider carefully what your "valuables" are and be sure to protect yourself against their loss as you would your credit cards or cash.  If a purse snatcher ran off with your only pair of glasses, or a bottle of essential medicine, or your address book, or a floppy disk with data on it, for example, how much of a problem would it be?

List of things you should do to protect yourself once you arrive in Guatemala:

• Keep ALL important documents (passport, money, tickets) in a secure inside pocket to guard against being pickpocketed or purse-snatched.
• Leave your passport in your room if you're staying in a reasonably safe place (host families and any relatively nice hotel may be considered safe) unless you're headed to the bank to get money and need it for ID.  Otherwise, carry a photocopy of it to satisfy Guatemalan authorities in the extremely unlikely event anybody ever asks you for it.
• Make sure your records of credit card numbers, issuing bank customer service numbers, and any relevant check numbers are in a safe place apart from the checks or credit cards themselves.
• Be conscientious about actually keeping track of travelers checks to know beyond doubt which ones you've cashed and which ones you haven't.
• Know how to make a collect call from a public phone to your bank or credit card company in your country of origin.  (Be mindful that US and European toll-free numbers are simply not usable from Guatemala and most other foreign countries.  As of the time this page was posted, collect calls could be made by dialing 147-120.  Most Telgua operators speak English sufficiently well to communicate with frustrated gringos.  See the online travel guide section on phone calls and communication for more information.)
• Try not to look lost, intimidated, or particularly vulnerable as you go blundering about as a tourist.
• Don't carry any bags or backpacks in crowded public places if you can conveniently avoid it, and if you need to carry one, be sure to keep a hand on the bag itself.
• When carrying bags or backpacks in public places, make sure that even when everything is muy tranquilo and there is no apparent threat, a strap of each of your bags is securely looped around an arm or leg or, if you sit down at a café or restaurant or bus station or stop, an adjacent piece of furniture.
• Wallets carried in back pockets are begging to be lifted, and wallets or little purses carried in front pockets are not secure.   While it is reasonable to keep some money in one for the sake of both convenience and safety (see suggestion 18 below), don't carry much, and never carry credit cards or important documents in them.
• If you carry a daypack or backpack through a crowd, wear it in front to avoid the possibility of it being slashed and emptied behind your back.  Make sure that any straps, buckles or snaps attaching it to your body are relatively inaccessible to a would be thief.
• Be aware that the most skilled pickpockets in Guatemala are tiny Indigenous women.
• Be aware, when at crowded markets or fiestas, that at whatever point the crowd becomes so dense you can't move, you're probably hemmed in by pickpockets.

    Be aware that if ANYTHING out of the ordinary happens to you in a crowded public place, it's very likely part of a plot to distract you in order to snatch your bag or lift your wallet. Such diversions include but are not limited to:

     Attention drawn to their endeavor is the last thing a pickpocket or purse snatcher wants.  So if something out of the ordinary should happen, loudly using the words "hay ladrones" (there are thieves) is not necessarily a bad idea, even if you have no proof that the distraction was, in fact, initiated by thieves.

• If you are out with a friend, keep an eye on each other to see if one or more local people seem to unnecessarily crowd your buddy.
• Remember that if there's anything more risky than a crowd, it's a place often frequented by tourists that appears to be completely abandoned. So avoid seemingly deserted ruins, parks, and side streets.
• In the very unlikely event you are confronted by an armed robber, give the guy whatever he wants without hesitation or resistance.  Keep in the forefront of your mind that your health is MUCH more important than your camera, your watch, or your cash.
• Carry some cash at all times to give to a robber in the very unlikely event you're confronted. (Robbers thwarted by completely empty pockets may become irate).
• If you are unlucky enough to be victimized, send you story to Centro Maya's Security Page so we can share it with others to help other folks avoid your circumstance.
• And once again, keep valuable documents, cash, and credit cards in an inside pocket.