State and Non-State Violence in Guatemala

Since the world needs more smart people who think about state and society theory, Matt’s post about violence against women in Guatemala reminds me that Angelina Godoy has written a terrific book that contains some fascinating work about the roots of mob violence in Guatemala. Depressingly, but importantly, she notes the ongoing effects that state terror has on societies:

“Lynchings in contemporary Guatemala can be grouped into two broad categories. First, there are those lynchings imposed through force and fear by former paramilitaries or military supporters, many of whom continue to exercise de facto authority in the postwar period….Second, however, there are also many lynchings carried out without coercion, by communities in which majorities often support such practices. These are acts are testament to a more troubling and complex sociological legacy of violence: not only to the persistence of dark forces, but to the seductive power of order through violence that was imposed by the state during wartime but today may be carried out at the behest of new and emerging forces in civil society. Ultimately, it is the perplexing tragedy of these popular lynchings that concerns me most, for they reveal in many ways the full extent of the transformation of social life under the practices of state terror.” (p.99)

That this private violence is used to uphold traditions of gender inequality is tragically unsurprising.