Reaction to Resistance
This chapter has presented the experiences of violence based on a system of impunity of a specific population of Guatemalans residing in that nation. The majority of their initial experiences of violent victimization had taken place under military regimes, while they were interviewed under civilian governments.
Death threats, tortures, and related persecutions due to their pro-justice activities, however, had consistently taken place regardless of the regime in power. This fact points to the existence of a culture of impunity and a system of state-sanctioned terrorism that supersedes the existence of any particular elected or coup-implemented political administration.As a consequence of their experiences of violence and the impunity which impedes the attainment of justice objectives, respondents' lives have been disrupted on many levels. This disruption is evident on an individual psychological level, on a familial level as well as on the community level. The experience of violence and the associated guilt attributed by many fearful members of society to the disappeared and executed for their own misfortunes have left many victimized families ostracized and excluded from wider social participation mirroring pre-violence patterns. This “social exclusion” (Blok 1989:32) has itself become an indelible disruptive force in the lives of many of the respondents. This social exclusionary effect is often heightened when respondents pursue justice through political participation.
A final division, perhaps not initially anticipated by the state terror system, is based on the transformation of violence survivors from victims to political resistors. As Jeffrey A. Sluka (1995: 83) points out, through his anthropological work in the Catholic ghettoes of Northern Ireland, “through the shared or communal experience of repression and prostate terror, they [activists] have transformed themselves into a culture of resistance.” Only time will show if the disruption evident in state terror's consistent operation will continuously fortify the culture of impunity, or whether a culture of resistance will bring Guatemalans sharing commonalities of violence by the state across gender, ethnic, and class lines together.
References
Asociacion Centroamericana de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (ACAFADE). (1991). Desaparecidos en Centroamirica 1990 (The Disappeared in Central America 1990). San Jose, Costa Rica: ACAFADE.
-----. (1990). Desaparecidos en Centroamirica 1989 (The Disappeared in Central America 1989). San Jose, Costa Rica: ACAFADE.
-----. (1989). Desaparecidos en Centroamirica 1988 (The Disappeared in Central America 1988). San Jose, Costa Rica: ACAFADE.
Blanco Munoz, Agustin. (1977). Latinoamirica la historia violentada (Latin America The ‘Violented’ History). Caracas, Venezuela: Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Blok, Anton. (1989). The symbolic vocabulary of public executions. In History and Power in the Study of Law New Directions in Legal Anthropology, edited by June Starr and Jane F. Collier, pp. 31-54. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Federacion de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (FEDEFAM). (1992). Periodical Bulletin. Caracas, Venezuela: FEDEFAM.
Figueroa Ibarra, Carlos. (1991). El Recurso delMiedo Ensayo sobre el estado y el terror en Guatemala (The Recourse to Fear Exposition on the state and terror in Guatemala). San Jose, Costa Rica: Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana.
Huggins, Martha K. (1991). Introduction: Vigilantism and the State-A Look South and North. In Vigilantism and the Modern State in Modern Latin America: Essays on Extralegal Violence, edited by Martha K. Huggins, pp. 1-18. New York: Praeger.
McClintock, Michael. (1985). The American Connection, Volume II: State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala. London: Zed Books Ltd.
McSherry, J. Patrice, and Raul Molina Mejia. (1992). Confronting the question of justice in Guatemala. Social Justice: a Journal of Crime, Conflict and World Order 19.3: 1-28.
Nader, Laura. (1989). The crown, the colonists and the course of Zapotec village law. In History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology, edited by June Starr and Jane F.
Collier, pp. 320-344. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Nairn, Allan. (1993). The roots of torture: U.S. complicity and the need for change. In Confronting the Heart of Darkness: An International Symposium on Torture in Guatemala, edited by Shari Turitz, pp. 4-10. Washington, D.C.: Guatemalan Human Rights Commission/USA.
Simon, Jean-Marie. (1987). Guatemala Eternal Spring-Eternal Tyranny. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Sluka, Jeffrey A. (1995). Domination, resistance and political culture in Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Nationalist ghettos. Critique of Anthropology 15.1: 71-102.
Smith, Carol A. (1990). Conclusion: History and revolution in Guatemala. In Guatemalan Indians and the State, edited by Carol A. Smith with the assistance of Marilyn M. Moors, pp. 258-285. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Whyte, William Foote, Davydd J. Greenwood, and Peter Lazes. (1991). Participatory action research through practice to science in social research. In Participatory Action Research, edited by William Foote Whyte, pp. 19-55. Newbury Park, London and New Delhi: Sage Publications.