THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE PANIC OF THE ROBANIÑOS: GRINGO ORGAN STEALERS, NARRATIVES OF MISTRUST, AND THE GUATEMALAN POLITICAL IMAGINATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY DANIEL ROTHENBERG CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MARCH 2018 Copyright 2018 Daniel Rothenberg. All rights reserved. In honor of my father, Abraham Joseph Rothenberg, for the constancy and depth of his love, for all that he taught me, and for understanding what is most important about this and other work. Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Outline of a Nationwide Panic .............................................................................................................. 1 2. “It is Something Completely New”: The Importance of an Integrated Analysis of the Panic .. 10 3. Situating the Panic within Anthropology’s “Discovery” of Violence ............................................ 20 4. Narratives of Revelation and Uncertainty .......................................................................................... 27 5. Narratives and Violence ........................................................................................................................ 32 6. Narratives of Mistrust ........................................................................................................................... 41 7. Study Methodology and Structure ....................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 1 – Certitude and Verification: The Truth Claims of “Fantastic” Tales and the Narrative Expression of Uncertainty .............................................................................................................. 58 1. “Es la pura verdad”: The Tales’ Binary Nature and the Challenges of Verification ....................... 58 2. Witchcraft Claims, Occult Economies, and the Power of the Fantastic to Make Sense of Contemporary Social Systems ................................................................................................................... 70 3. How Fantastic Stories Work: Three Perspectives ............................................................................. 81 4. Antecedents to the Panic: Guatemala’s International Adoption Industry ................................. 103 5. The Panic Starts: The Appearance of Tales of Organ-Stealing Gringos ...................................... 121 Chapter 2 – The Panic of the Robaniños: Narrative Logic and the Legacy of State Terror in Guatemala .................................................................................................................................... 127 1. Simple Tales and the Legacy of State Terror .................................................................................. 127 2. The Legacy of La Violencia and the Impact of State Terror on Representation ........................ 134 3. Tensions within Transition: Truth-telling and Accountability in the Period Preceding the Panic ..................................................................................................................................................................... 148 4. Discovered and Mutilated Corpses: The Communicative Logic of Brutalized Bodies ............ 158 5. What is Hidden and Revealed: The Narrative Logic of the Tales of the Robaniños .................. 177 Chapter 3 – Riot in Santa Lucía: Guatemala’s Justice Crisis and Critique of the Country’s Democratic Transition ................................................................................................................. 181 iv 1. Popular Violence in Santa Lucía Cotzamalguapa ........................................................................... 181 2. The Riot as an Expression of Guatemala’s Justice Crisis ............................................................. 190 3. Questioning the Open Promises of Political Transition: Democracy as a Metanarrative ........ 199 4. The Context of Mistrust and Social Uncertainty in Guatemala’s Justice Crisis ......................... 213 5. After the Riot: the Political Significance of an Expressly Apolitical Threat .............................. 220 Chapter 4 – Riot in San Cristóbal: The Signifying Power of Gringo and Other Bodies .................. 226 1. Incident in San Cristóbal de Alta Verapaz: Violence against Gringo Bodies............................... 226 2. Another Riot: The Motivating Power of Bodies Present and Absent ........................................ 236 3. Gringo Status and Gringo Bodies ........................................................................................................ 252 4. Gringo/Non-Gringo: The Relative Value of Bodies ......................................................................... 265 5. Children’s Bodies, the Truth of Gringo Intentions and the Compromised Body Politic .......... 272 Chapter 5 – The Legacies of the Panic: The Logic of Narratives of Mistrust ................................ 285 1. Crisis and Dissolution: The Events of 1994 as a Moral Panic ..................................................... 285 2. Continued Stories: Attacks on Gringos and Generalized Threats ................................................. 298 3. Los Linchamientos: Public Popular Violence against Criminals ...................................................... 306 4. The “Success” of the Panic of the Robaniños: Engaging Narrative Form and Narrative Operation ................................................................................................................................................... 314 5. The Panic and the Idea of Spectacle ................................................................................................ 328 Conclusion – Narratives, Political Imagination and the Meaning of Guatemala’s Transition from “War” to “Peace” ......................................................................................................................... 335 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 349 v List of Tables Table 1 Overview of Approached to Fantastic Tales .................................................................... 102 Table 2 Communicative Logic of Brutalized Bodies ..................................................................... 179 Table 3 Bodies Seen/Unseen and Local/Distant .......................................................................... 249 Table 4 Narrative Form of the Tales of the Organ-Stealing Gringos .............................................. 320 Table 5 Narrative Operation - Elements and Accountability in the Tales of the Organ-Stealing Gringos .......................................................................................................................................... 324 vi Acknowledgments This document is the result of years of research, thinking, and writing. To complete this project, I relied on the kindness, generosity, and patience of far too many people to mention. However, several individuals stand out. Very special thanks to my dissertation committee: Stephan Palmié, John L. Comaroff, and Judith B. Farquhar. They were exceptionally helpful in guiding my work, providing critical support, and displaying the very best of the field’s vision and commitment. Over the years, I also worked closely with other University of Chicago faculty, including Albert Alschuler, Arjun Appadurai, Douglas Massey, and Marshall Sahlins. In addition, while they were not directly involved in this study, I have been fortunate to have several inspiring academic mentors, including Mary Gluck, Martha Nussbaum, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Robert Scholes. I owe a special debt to a number of friends who stood with me throughout this process including Nassim Assefi, Paul Berman, Alberto Coll, Laura Dickinson, Noah Feldman, Carolyn Frantz, David Gartner, Robert Kaestner, Julia Lieblich, Michael Hechter, Gabriel Rebeiz, Jim Silk, Paul Silverstein, and Neda Ulaby. In Guatemala, I worked closely with many people involved in civil society and human rights issues and am particularly grateful to Victoria Sanford and Amílcar Méndez and his family. This project has been guided by a sense of responsibility to those who spoke with me about their lives, detailing brutal acts of political violence and the crushing impact of poverty and lost dreams. There is no way to adequately acknowledge the value and significance of these encounters. I only hope that this work and related activities serve to honor their lives, concerns, and stories. I am deeply thankful for the support of my parents, of blessed memory, who stood with me at all times and taught me about the joy and importance of big ideas. A very special thanks to my brother, David, who has always been an inspiration, and also to his family. Finally, I am grateful beyond words for the love, care, insight, and unwavering support of my wife, Ilissa, and the always joyful presence of our son, Isaac. vii Introduction 1. Outline