Explosives: the fixed sentences the law now imposes

It is the update of the 1969 Explosives Act penalties. The 2012 Penal Code moved Puerto Rico to a fixed-sentence system, but left the penalties of special criminal statutes in force until each was conformed. Act 88-2026 conforms the explosives one. For whoever reads this, the practical change is that there are no more ranges: each offence’s penalty is an exact number of years or months.

It is not a procedure or a benefit: these are offences and their penalties. The four penalty articles are distinguished by conduct and by intent. Article 26 punishes use; Article 27, possession with intent to harm, terrorize or destroy; Article 28, unlawful possession for purposes other than Article 27’s; and Article 30 sweeps up any other violation of the Act or its regulations with no penalty assigned.

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1. 1

   Step 1: Illegal use: fifteen years, fixed term

   Article 26 carries the highest of the four penalties. “Any person who uses explosives or any substance usable to manufacture explosives, with the unlawful purpose of causing bodily harm, or of terrorizing any person, or to damage or destroy any property, or to harm it in any way, shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, punished with imprisonment for a fixed term of fifteen (15) years.” Note that the purpose of “terrorizing” sits at the same level as bodily harm and as damage to property.

2. 2

   Step 2: Possession with illegal purpose: eight years, and the parts list

   Article 27 is the one most people underestimate, because it does not require a finished explosive. It reaches anyone who has “any explosive, substance usable to manufacture explosives, or any object usable to detonate or to manufacture explosives or bombs, such as a fuse, battery, clock, acid, primer or detonator, or any other serving analogous purposes,” provided it is “with the intent to use it to cause bodily harm or to terrorize any person, or to damage or destroy any property or to harm it in any way.” The penalty is a felony with imprisonment for a fixed term of eight (8) years. Intent is the element separating this article from the next.

3. 3

   Step 3: Illegal possession without that purpose: six months and up to $5,000

   Article 28 covers unlawful possession “for purposes other than those provided in the preceding article.” It is a misdemeanour, “punished with imprisonment for a fixed term of six (6) months,” and adds: “The court may in its discretion impose, in addition to the fixed term of imprisonment, a fine not exceeding five thousand (5,000) dollars.” The fine is discretionary and adds to the imprisonment; it does not replace it.

4. 4

   Step 4: The clause that sweeps up everything else

   Article 30 closes the system and is worth reading because it also reaches the regulations: “Any violation of the provisions of this Act and its regulations, unless otherwise expressly provided therein, shall constitute a misdemeanour, and every misdemeanour for violations of the provisions of this Act for which no other penalty has been provided shall be punished with imprisonment for a fixed term of six (6) months,” with the same discretionary fine of up to five thousand (5,000) dollars. We did not read those regulations, so we publish none of their provisions.

5. 5

   Step 5: Confiscation reaches the vehicle and the real property too

   Article 32 is the one with property consequences, and it is broad: “The Secretary of Justice shall confiscate every movable and immovable asset in which any explosive or substance usable to manufacture explosives is loaded, unloaded, transported, carried or moved, that is used to load, unload, transport, carry or move it, or that is caught loaded, or in the act of loading or unloading or transporting or carrying or moving it, in violation of the provisions of this Act or its regulations.” And it sets the procedure: “For the confiscation and disposition of movable and immovable assets the procedure established by Act No. 119-2011, as amended, known as the ‘Uniform Confiscations Act of 2011,’ shall be followed.” We did not read Act 119-2011, so we publish no deadlines or procedure for challenging a confiscation.

6. 6

   Step 6: Why the penalties are fixed

   The statement of motives explains it and we repeat it attributed to that source. With the approval of Act 146-2012 a new Penal Code was adopted that reformulated penalties; that Code provided that the felonies contemplated in special criminal statutes under the 2004 Penal Code would remain in force until those statutes were amended and conformed to the new fixed-sentence system. The 1969 Explosives Act had not yet been conformed, and this Act does it. That is why each penalty above is an exact number and not a range.

7. 7

   Step 7: What this Act does not tell you, and we will not invent

   This Act amended five penalty and confiscation articles, and nothing else. It does not say who issues an explosives permit, what its requirements are, or what makes a possession lawful rather than unlawful. All of that lives in the parts of Act 134-1969 this Act did not touch and that we did not read. If you need to know how a permit is obtained, this guide cannot tell you. What we do know from the enacted text is that the Secretary of Justice is the one who confiscates.

There is nothing to apply for here: these are offences, and the forum is the court. The Secretary of Justice is the one who confiscates assets under Article 32, following the Uniform Confiscations Act of 2011. If what you are looking for is which fireworks are legal, that is a different Act and we have a separate guide: the Pyrotechnics Act expressly provides that it in no way repeals, alters or modifies the Explosives Act.

• Thinking a finished explosive is needed: Article 27 reaches a fuse, battery, clock, acid, primer or detonator, and any other object of analogous purpose.
• Confusing Article 27 with 28: the difference is the intent to harm, terrorize or destroy. Eight years against six months.
• Reading the penalties as ranges: they are fixed terms, which is precisely what this Act came to establish.
• Believing the fine replaces imprisonment: in Articles 28 and 30 the fine is discretionary and imposed “in addition to the fixed term of imprisonment.”
• Assuming confiscation reaches only vehicles: Article 32 says “every movable and immovable asset.”
• Looking in this Act for how to get an explosives permit: it amended five penalty and confiscation articles, nothing more.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico

  Justicia

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov