Political Repression, Disappearance and Impunity in Mexico and Guatemala

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel offers a collection of new findings on the Guatemalan counterinsurgency war, bringing forward a variety of new perspectives and themes. The papers explore consecutively the operational design of the Guatemalan genocide; the practice of political denunciation among Guatemalan citizens; the struggle of female victims of sexual crimes perpetrated in the context of war; and an analysis of the urban counterinsurgent dynamics from within the clandestine detention centers.
Drouin approaches the counterinsurgency through one of the main elements of the genocide definition: “the destruction, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. For that purpose, this paper provides a deep comparative research on the French, American and Guatemalan counterinsurgency theories.
Janssens shares a novel research perspective by shedding light on the role ordinary Guatemalan civilians played as the willing informants that made the machinery of state terror run; the human resources that fed and enabled the efficiency of the Guatemalan intelligence services.
Paz presents the perspective of women as victims of sexual violence and forced disappearance, shedding light on their lengthy struggle for justice, truth and reparation along with the social effects of exposing themselves, once again, to continued aggressions on behalf of those seeking to consolidate impunity.
Perez explain the territorial dispossession and forced displacement of mayan poq’omchi’ women during the war in Guatemala.
Vela explores the universe of one of the institutions that played a key role in the counterinsurgency war: the clandestine detention centers in Guatemala City.

Sub Track

• Human Rights and Memory

Session Organizer

• Manolo E Vela Castañeda, Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México

Chair

• Manolo E Vela Castañeda, Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México

Discussant

• Marisol Lopez Menendez, Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO)

Individual Presentations

• "It's not gossip, it's true!" The Practice of Political Denunciations During the Armed Conflict in Guatemala (1975-1985) - Joren Janssens, KU Leuven

• Guatemala, 1981-1984. Clandestine Detention Centers in the Context of the Counterinsurgency Urban War - Manolo E Vela Castañeda, Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México

• Los Años Heridos. México, la memoria de los desaparecidos 1969-1978 - Fritz Glockner Corte, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

• Recovering Memory a Second Time Around: Translating Fritz Glockner's "Los años heridos. México, La memoria de los desaparecidos 1969-1978." - Elizabeth Polli