Genocide in Guatemala: Geopolitical Systems of Death and Power
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Genocide in Guatemala: Geopolitical Systems of Death and Power Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Nyanda J. Redwood, M.A. Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Prof. Ileana Rodríguez, Adviser Prof. Corona Ignacio Prof. Ulises Zevallos Copyright by Nyanda J. Redwood 2014 Abstract My dissertation examines the Guatemalan Maya genocide of the 1980s in light of four central geopolitical systems of death and power that I proclaim are causative to it. These are: 1) coloniality of power, 2) the invisibility of coloniality of power, 3) necropolitics, and 4) biopolitics. First, I contend that these four facets all fall within European modernity. Next, I maintain that the legacy of coloniality of power created the formation of the Guatemalan genocide-producing habitat starting most clearly in the 1950s with the U.S. led coup d’état of President Árbenz as well as its lead in fighting the dissemination of communism within Latin America and the Caribbean. Thereafter, I illustrate my contention that in the case of the Maya genocide, the operating system of coloniality of power is often invisible. I do so by highlighting how Granito: A Story in Three Parts relegate the U.S.’ role in the formation of the habitat of the Maya genocide to silence. After this, I uphold that the militarization of life primarily by Guatemala’s elite forces, the Kaibiles, but also by Guatemalan Guerrillas led to the material destruction of indigenous Guatemalans, the composition of which is necropolitics. And finally, I look at the administration of sovereign power at the expense of Maya lives (biopolitics) via two specific mechanisms, regulation and deduction. This falls specifically under the regime of General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982 -1983. My thesis is that the concurrence of these four facets undoubtedly produced the Maya carnage, and I posit this concurrency as a framework with which we can comprehensively understand the ii phenomenon of this cruel act against humanity. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents Clive and Ivy Redwood who taught me life’s intangible values. iv Acknowledgements I would like to recognize my adviser, Professor Ileana Rodríguez, who tirelessly aided me with the completion of this manuscript. I would like to extend gratitude to Professor Ignacio Corona and Professor Ulises Zevallos for their invaluable feedback. I would also like to extend gratitude to Tokunbo Shuler, my support throughout my entire doctoral program. v Vita May 2001 .......................................................High School Diploma, Ardenne High School 2006................................................................B.A. Spanish, Wesleyan College 2006................................................................B.A. Mathematics, Wesleyan College 2008 ...............................................................M.A., Literature, Linguistic, and Civilization of the Hispanic World, St. John’s University 2014 ...............................................................Ph.D., Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies, The Ohio State University Publications Redwood, Nyanda. “Tu promesa mentirosa,” “¿Qué más necesitamos?” “Los cuerpos besados por el sol,” y “Lamento de la verdad.” Entre Rascacielos. Ed. Marie-Lise Gazarian and Mónica Sánchez. Department of Languages and Literatures. Epsilon Kappa of Sigma Delta Pi - La Sociedad Nacional Hispánica de Honor. New York: St. John’s University P., Oct. 2007, vol. 13. Print. Fields of Study Major Field of Study: Spanish and Portuguese Specialty: Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies vi Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………..…..v Vita………………………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………...viii General Introduction……………..………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Coloniality of Power in Guatemala, 1950s: The Operating System behind the Mayan Genocide in the Early 1980s…………………………………11 Chapter 2: The Invisibility of the Operating System of Coloniality of Power through the Lens of Granito: A Story In Three Parts…………………………….48 Chapter 3: Guatemala 1980s: The Instrumentalization of Human Existence and the Material Destruction of Human Bodies and Populations………………..92 Chapter 4: Guatemala 1980s: Administering Sovereign Power at the Level of Life: Regulation & Deduction, Spaces of Exception – Biopolitics ………….156 General Conclusions…………..………………………………………………………..208 References…….………………………………………………………………………...213 Notes……………………………………………………………………………………224 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Interplay between the U.S.’ drive to hegemonic world power and the four geopolitical systems of death and power……………………………………………….211 viii General Introduction The ‘subaltern’ more than being an oppressed physical body delineates that agency that interrupts knowledge from within knowledge itself (Rodríguez “Debates” 43). In an effort to denounce and bring to the fore the geopolitical systems (some may prefer to say strategies) of death and power causative of the Mayan slaughter of the early 1980s of Guatemala, renowned Indian literary theorist’s, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, catchphrase incessantly plays across my mind – “can the subaltern speak?” – as a foray of questions along the following lines seek to deter this effort – “do you believe that the Guatemalan people will side with these assertions?” And what are those contentions? The most problematic one is that the Guatemalan Mayan genocide primarily resulted from the United States’ drive to amass global economic power, and that, paralleling Darius M. Rejali’s claim relating to torture (1994), this bloodshed was a requisite to the (transnational and national) growth of modernity, which is intrinsically European in nature. My overarching claim, however, is that four geopolitical systems of death and power clearly and in conjunction produced the mass extermination of Guatemala’s Mayans in the early 1980s. With respect to the obstacle of whether or not the subaltern can speak, which is integral to this current research because the locus of enunciation of this research emerges from within the subaltern sphere, the above epigraph that cites 1 Ileana Rodriguez’s observation on the critical role of the subaltern reassures us that there is room for this research, which commences as follows. During its 36 years (1960-1996) of violent civil unrests, the Guatemalan state frequently targeted its own civilians. Patrick Ball et al underscore this in their study – “Institutionalized Violence in Guatemala, 1960-1996: A Quantitative Reflection”. Within this study, which consists of more than five thousand testimonies amongst other sources, they point out that the Guatemalan state assassinated hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced another million (6,17). According to them, the state terrorized its citizen as a deterrent to joining arms with the local insurgencies (18). Given that the Guatemalan state targeted its civilians, who because of their civil statuses posed no imminent threat to the state, the state unscrupulously decided who lived and who died. Based on this, and focusing on the bloodiest timeframe of these unrests, 1975- 1985, my research establishes the Guatemalan state as an employee of an operating system that conformed to geopolitical systems of death and power. These systems can be described as 1) coloniality of power, 2) biopolitics, and 3) necropolitics. Adding to them, I propose a new component: the invisibility of the operating system of coloniality of power. I suggest that this new component completes the operating system that the Guatemalan state conformed to, especially during this ten year time period. Furthermore, this new component enables the continuation of the three anteceding components of death and power. And as a result, I contend that the invisibility of the operating system of coloniality of power fosters continuations of human rights violations in Guatemala. 2 Finally, but of utmost importance, I charge that these geopolitical systems of death and power are intrinsically part and parcel of European modernity, the global political and economic system of today. As a caveat, I admit that while my work does not set out to highlight decoloniality as such, it is decolonial in the sense that it unveils the manner in which the impact of coloniality of power and its legacy produced unquestionably the Mayan genocide of the early 1980s.1 Likewise, it takes literature primarily from the subaltern to forge the path of unveiling genocide as a vice to coloniality of power and its legacy. My work also delves into necropolitics and biopolitics, which as I pointed out earlier I posit as systems closely tied to coloniality of power and its legacy. Likewise, and again, what is unique to my argument is that I put forth the invisibility of coloniality of power as a strategy that veils the vice, genocide of the Mayans, of the impact of coloniality of power and its legacy in the Guatemalan internal armed conflict. I also maintain that it veils the comprehensive whole of the operating system of coloniality of power and its legacy, which frequently prevents us from observing at once the operation of the entire system in which coloniality of power and its legacy dwell. This is crucial as it lends itself to the understanding that we are at times trapped