Tracing Responses to Femi(Ni)Cide in “Postconflict” Guatemala: a Transnational Feminist Analysis

Tracing Responses to Femi(ni)cide in “Postconflict” Guatemala: A Transnational Feminist Analysis Fabienne Doiron A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies York University Toronto, Ontario December 2020 ©Fabienne Doiron, 2020 ii Abstract In the first decade of the 2000s, feminists and human rights activists in Guatemala began to call attention to an increasing number of murders of women in the country. Mobilizing the discourse of femicidio / feminicidio that was circulating in many parts of Latin America at the time, they advocated for women’s right to live free from violence and pressured the state to address the conditions that infringe on this right. This dissertation addresses state and civil society responses to femi(ni)cide, examining the assumptions embedded in these responses and their implications for questions of justice and accountability in Guatemala’s postconflict and post-genocide context. It draws on interviews with 33 key informants (activists and advocates, representatives of NGOs and state institutions) as well as textual analysis of reports on and campaigns against femi(ni)cide. Grounded in an antiracist and transnational feminist framework, it offers a historicized and contextualized analysis of femi(ni)cide as embedded in social relations of power and structures of exclusion, privilege, and marginalization. The dissertation uncovers a tension between everyday and exceptional violence running through anti-femi(ni)cide activism that is largely sustained by the idea of a continuum of violence against women. Such a continuum links more common and normalized forms of gendered violence to headline-grabbing murders exhibiting signs of torture and overkill by explaining them as violence that affects “all” women as women. While sustaining this tension was central to activists’ success in pressuring legislators to adopt a law that criminalized several forms of gendered violence, it has also contributed to the erasure of the particular women targeted by more exceptional forms of violence: those marginalized by constructions of class, race/ethnicity, gender expression, sexuality, and proximity to sex work, gangs, and criminality—whether real or presumed. Contextualizing the Guatemalan state’s responses to femi(ni)cide within its historical treatment of sexual and gendered violence in law reveals the gendered, racialized, and classed constructs as well as the structural barriers that together mediate access to justice. Given that state responses to femi(ni)cide have largely been limited to the realm of criminal law, these findings warn against relying on the state to address gendered violence. iii Acknowledgements Like all academic endeavours, this dissertation would not have been possible without the support of an entire community within and outside the university and in many geographic locations. First and foremost, I want to thank the key informants who agreed to be interviewed for this project. The time, knowledge, experience, and insights you shared with me were immensely appreciated. I hope you see your voices and visions reflected in this dissertation. I want to thank my supervisor, Alison Crosby, for continuing to believe in this project and in my ability to bring it to completion despite the many challenges I’ve faced along the way. Your engagement with and support for my research have been invaluable, thank you for your guidance and encouragement throughout. This project has also benefited from the expertise of Carmela Murdocca and Kamala Kempadoo who rounded out my supervisory committee. Thank you for your careful readings of my work, your thoughtful feedback, and critical questions. I also want to acknowledge the contributions of Ena Dua to my comprehensive exam committee and thank the members of my PhD examination committee, Gabriela Torres, Carlotta McAllister, and Annie Bunting, for their time and interest in this project. In addition to supervising my doctoral work, Alison took me on as a teaching and research assistant. Working on the gender and reparations project with her, Brinton Lykes, Brisna Caxaj, and the rest of the research team involved in the project was one of the most formative experiences of my graduate training. Thank you Alison and Brinton for your mentorship and for the hands-on experience in a transnational collaborative research project. Your commitment to working in common cause with Guatemalans seeking justice has been an inspiration. In Guatemala, the compañeras at UNAMG with whom I spent many summers while working on the gender and reparations project always welcomed me with open arms and made space for me in the office. Cecilia González has been a long-time friend who also provided me with a place to stay during one of my fieldwork visits, and Leslie Lemus was a wonderful roommate during my second fieldwork visit, always enthusiastic about discussing research, writing, and all things social science. Thank you all for your camaraderie and for sharing your feminist insights into life and struggle in Guatemala. At York, the friendship and intellectual engagement of my peers and colleagues sustained me through coursework, comps, and early dissertation work. Emily Rosser, Conely Deleon, Shihoko Nakagawa, Jessica Chandrashekar, Caren Weisbart, Flora Chen, Tanya Aberman, Kathryn Travis, Laine Hughes, Nadia Kanani, and many others, thank you for the stimulating discussions, brainstorming sessions, panicked chats, library dates, and for your company on the long commutes to and from campus. But also—especially—thank you for the all the shared meals, craft evenings, beach picnics, dog walks, bike rides, birthday parties, and patio and porch hangouts. The friendship of Jackie McVicar, Caren Weisbart, Caitlin Power-Hancey, and Olimpia Boido has anchored me. They, along with the broader BTS network were, for several years, a bridge between Toronto and Guatemala, and helped make both places feel a bit more like home. iv Immediately after completing my fieldwork in 2014 I travelled to Oaxaca, Mexico, to participate in a summer institute on sexual and gender violence hosted by CIESAS, Pacífico Sur. Thank you to the coordinators, Héctor Domínguez-Ruvalcaba and Patricia Ravelo Blancas; instructors, Emma Chirix, Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Ileana Rodríguez, and Gloria Careaga; and participants for helping to renew my focus and sharpen my analysis at such a critical juncture in my project. A special thanks to Mariola Vicente, Alicia Miklos, Aileen Ford, Lea Leiva, and Ivonne Rámirez for their friendship during our time in Oaxaca. I wrote the bulk of this dissertation after having relocated to Southern California, where I was lucky to find a writing group through a network of PhD students in LA. Meeting in coffeeshops and libraries across Pasadena, Eagle Rock, and Glendale, this group helped me be accountable and focus on my writing. Despite our wide array of disciplines, we were able to support each other to completion. Thank you Azadeh Tehranian, Tian Gong, and Helga Mazyar for making writing a dissertation in a new city a much less isolating experience. Finally, I would not be where I am nor who I am today without my family, and especially, my parents. Maman, Papa, Nadia, Dany, merci de m'avoir encouragée à poser des questions et à chercher des réponses, et de m'avoir inculqué un sens d'équité et de solidarité. There aren’t enough words to thank my partner in life and co-parenting, Max. Thank you for your support, patience, and encouragement throughout this long endeavour. Your continued belief that this was a worthwile pursuit has kept me going, especially in this last push to get it done. I could not have juggled pandemic life, parenting, and dissertation writing without you. Despite the sleepless nights, our son Félix has brought me so much joy and happy distraction in the past year. And our four-legged companion Riker has made sure I get up from my desk periodically to take her out for walks. Thank you all for always reminding me that there’s more to life than work. *** I gratefully acknowledge the funding support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Helena Orton Memorial Scholarship, and the Paavo and Aino Lukkari Human Rights Fellowship. These awards were instrumental in supporting my doctoral work. v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Contextualizing Femi(ni)cide: “Postconflict” Violence and Impunity ................................................ 2 Locating Myself in the Field........................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................................

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