Canillá was elevated to municipality by an executive action of president José María Reina Barrios on 21 March 1893. The municipality was suppressed, however, by an executive action of president Jorge Ubico on 26 August 1936 and went back to San Andrés Sajcabajá as a human settlement. Years later, yet another executive action, this time of president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, on 13 November 1951, reestablished the municipality under the same circumstances it was on 26 August 1936, when it was merged into San Andrés Sajcabajá.