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Latin American Perspectives
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Resocializing Suffering

Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala's New Violence

Peter Benson

Washington University in St. Louis

Edward F. Fischer

Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt University

Kedron Thomas

Harvard University

An ethnographic account of the putative shift away from state-sponsored violence and the emergence of new patterns of violence in postwar Guatemala challenges liberal political and moral models that narrowly interpret violence in terms of individual suffering and/or culpability. Such models converge with a resurgence of right-wing political activity. The origins and outcomes of violence are more usefully and accurately conceived in terms of structural and societal conditions. Guatemala's new violence (e.g., crime, gang activity, and vigilantism) is not the chaos of media accounts but a manifestation of enduring legacies of state violence and the social and economic insecurities brought on by structural adjustment policies.

Key Words: Violence • Structural violence • Neoliberalism • Democracy • Transitional justice • Guatemala

Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 35, No. 5, 38-58 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X08321955
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