Securing the City

Kevin Lewis O’Neil and Kedron Thomas (Editors)

Description

Unprecedented crime rates have made Guatemala City one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Following a peace process that ended Central America's longest and bloodiest civil war and impelled the transition from a state-centric economy to the global free market, Guatemala's neoliberal moment is now strikingly evident in the practices and politics of security. Postwar violence has not prompted public debates about the conditions that permit transnational gangs, drug cartels, and organized crime to thrive. Instead, the dominant reaction to crime has been the cultural promulgation of fear and the privatization of what would otherwise be the state's responsibility to secure the city. This collection of essays, the first comparative study of urban Guatemala, explores these neoliberal efforts at security. Contributing to the anthropology of space and urban studies, this book brings together anthropologists and historians to examine how postwar violence and responses to it are reconfiguring urban space, transforming the relationship between city and country, and exacerbating deeply rooted structures of inequality and ethnic discrimination.Contributors. Peter Benson, Manuela Camus, Avery Dickins de Giron, Edward F. Fischer, Deborah Levenson, Thomas Offit, Kevin Lewis O'Neill, Kedron Thomas, Rodrigo Jose Veliz

Sujets

• Histoire
• History of the Americas
• Central America
• SS Central America
• Guatemala

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 09 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822393924
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Securing the City

Securing the City Neoliberalism, Space, and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala

Edited by Kevin Lewis O’Neill and Kedron homas

Duke University Press Durham and London 2011

© 2011 Duke University Press All rigHts reserved

Printed in tHe United States of America on acid-ree paper ♾

Typeset in Quadraat and Magma Compact by Tseng Inormation Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on tHe last printed page of tHis book.

Contents

Acknowledgments ∙ vii

Securing tHe City An Introduction∙ 1 Kedron homas, Kevin Lewis O’Neill, and homas Oît

Part One: Urban History and Social Experience

Living Guatemala City, 1930s–2000s ∙ 25 DeboraH T. Levenson

Primero de julio Urban Experiences of Class Decline and Violence∙ 49 Manuela Camus

Cacique or a Neoliberal Age A Maya Retail Empire on the Streets of Guatemala City∙ 67 homas Oît

PrivatiZation of Public Space He Displacement of Street Vendors in Guatemala City∙ 83 Rodrigo j. VÉliZ and Kevin Lewis O’Neill

Part Two: Guatemala City and Country

he Security Guard Industry in Guatemala Rural Communities and Urban Violence∙ 103 Avery Dickins de Girón

vi Contents

Guatemala’s New Violence as Structural Violence Notes rom the ighlands∙ 127 Peter Benson, Kedron homas, and Edward F. FiscHer

Spaces of Structural Adustment in Guatemala’s Apparel Industry ∙ 147 Kedron homas

ands of Love Christian Outreach and the Spatialization of Ethnicity∙ 165 Kevin Lewis O’Neill

Reerences ∙ 193 Contributors ∙ 213 Index ∙ 215

Acknowledgments

his book began witH a series of interrelated panel discussions on security and space in Guatemala City, including a double-panel at tHe 2006 Ameri- can AntHropological Association Annual Meeting in San jose, Caliornia. We are grateul to tHe participants in tHese sessions, especially Carol A. SmitH and TimotHy j. SmitH, wHo botH provided tHougHtul and incisive comments in tHeir roles as discussants in 2006. We are also grateul to our contribu- tors or being responsive to our queries and or tHeir patience during tHe re- view process. Many tHanks to Indiana University, Bloomington, or support- ing tHe translation of Manuela Camus’s essay rom SpanisH into EnglisH by MicHael Mosier. hank you to james L. Watson or tHe direction He provided in tHe volume’s initial stages and or His suggestions regarding tHe volume title. he anonymous reviewers at Duke University Press provided invaluable insigHts tHat greatly improved tHe quality of tHe ïnal manuscript. In addi- tion, we would like to tHank Valerie MillHolland, Miriam Angress, Amanda SHarp, and Mark Mastromarino or tHeir support tHrougHout tHe publication process. SHruti KrisHnan of Indiana University also provided important assis- tance during tHe production process.  Portions of tHe essay “Guatemala’s New Violence as Structural Violence,” by Peter Benson, Kedron homas, and Edward F. FiscHer were previously publisHed as “ResocialiZing Suering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and tHe Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala’s New Violence,”Latin American Perspec- tives35(5)38–58. An earlier version of tHe essay “Spaces of Structural Adust- ment in Guatemala’s Apparel Industry,” by Kedron homas was publisHed as “Structural Adustment, Spatial Imaginaries, and ‘Piracy’ in Guatemala’s Ap- parel Industry,”Anthropology of Work Review30(1)1–10. Kevin Lewis O’Neill’s essay, “ands of Love” was publisHed by tHe University of Caliornia Press in City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala(2010). he remaining essays Have not appeared previously.

Securing the City

An Introduction

Kedron homas, Kevin Lewis O’Neill, and homas Oît

Neoliberalism, a term commonly used to describe tHe set of economic re- orms tHat impels structural adustment, is a practice. It is a kind of tool kit, a set of institutions, logics, and rationalities tHat are used by people—some- times sitting in government oîces, sometimes vending crats in crowded streets—to understand inequalities and to respond to tHem. In tHe spirit of SHerry Ortner (1984) and Eric Wolf (1980), wHo wrote of a dierent pHase of global capitalism, tHe essays collected Here ask wHat neoliberalism looks like on tHe ground and How it is practiced. ow Have Guatemalans come to inHabit lives and spaces tHat are in large measure engineered according to neoliberal logics? WHat do ordinary people make of tHese cHanging times, and wHat les- sons are to be learned rom tHeir experiences? More speciïcally, wHat does neoliberalism look like in Guatemala?  Guatemala’s neoliberal moment is strikingly evident in practices and poli- tics of security. Even ater tHe close of Central America’s longest and bloodi- est civil war, wHicH reacHed genocidal proportions in tHe late 1970s and early 1980s, Guatemala remains a violent country, tHougH tHe political and cultural coordinates of tHis violence Have cHanged signiïcantly (Nelson 2009). Guate- mala Has one of tHe HigHest Homicide rates in all of tHe Americas averaging about 17 murders per day, witH mucH of tHe violent crime concentrated in tHe capital city. he country also Has one of tHe lowest rates of incarceration at 28 prisoners per 100,000 people (Canadian Red Cross 2006; Ungar 2003). he average criminal trial lasts more tHan our years witH less tHan 2 percent of crimes resulting in a conviction (Wilson 2009). “It’s sad to say, but Guatemala is a good place to commit murder,” one international observer remarked, “be-