Secrecy and Insurgency: Socialities and Knowledge Practices in Guatemala

268 Pages·2014·1.992 MB·English

by  Silvia Posocco

Secrecy and
InSurgency

Secrecy
and
InSurgency
Socialities and Knowledge
Practices in Guatemala
Silvia PoSocco
The UniversiTy of AlAb AmA Press
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2014
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487- 0380
All rights reserved
manufactured in the United states of America
Typeface: minion
Cover photograph: Petén, Guatemala, 2000; courtesy of the author
Cover design: erin bradley Dangar/Dangar Design
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
Ameri can national standard for information sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed library materials, Ansi Z39.48- 1984.
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Posocco, silvia.
secrecy and insurgency : socialities and knowledge practices in Guatemala /
silvia Posocco.
pages cm
summary: “This title deals with the experiences of guerrilla combatants of
the fuerzas Armadas rebeldes (rebel Armed forces) in the aftermath of the
peace accords signed in December 1996 between the Guatemalan government
and guerrilla insurgents. Drawing on a broad field of contemporary theory,
the author presents a vivid ethnographic account of secrecy as both sociality
and a set of knowledge practices. informed by multi-sited anthropological
fieldwork among displaced communities with experiences of militancy in
the guerrilla organization fuerzas Armadas rebeldes, the book traces the
contours of dispersed and intermittent guerrilla social relations, unraveling
the gendered dimensions of guerrilla socialities and subjectivities in a local
context marked by violence and rapid social change”— Provided by publisher.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8173-1359-3 (hardback) — isbn 978-0-8173-8698-6 (e book)
1. Guerrillas—Guatemala—social conditions. 2. secrecy—social aspects—
Guatemala. 3. fuerzas Armadas rebeldes (Guatemala) 4. Guatemala—
history—Civil War, 1960–1996—Peace. 5. ethnology—Guatemala. i. Title.
f1466.7.P67 2013
972.8105'31—dc23
2013019835
This book is dedicated to the memory of the compañeras and
compañeros who died during the Guatemalan conflict and to those
who sustain the struggle by different means in civilian life.
El trabajo se dedica a la memoria de las compañeras y los
compañeros que fallecieron en el conflicto armado en Guatemala
y a todas/os las/os que siguen luchando en la vida civil.

Nosotros estamos y no estamos
We are there, but we are not there
—luis Augusto Turcios lima, fAr Comandante, 1967
Hay cosas que no se saben, y nosotros nunca las dijimos.
There are things that are not known, and that we never told.
—fAr Comandante, 2000
¡Las preguntas no son las indiscretas, si no las respuestas!
Questions are never indiscreet, but answers are!
—fAr Comandante, 2000

Contents
list of illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
list of Acronyms xv
introduction 1
1. The Problem of Context 24
2. violence, sovereignty, Governmentality 50
3. secrecy, relation, Connection 88
4. secrecy, sociality, merographic Analogy 111
5. sociality, substance, moral order 142
6. secrecy, Prosthetics, Aesthetics 176
Conclusion 201
notes 207
bibliography 225
index 243