The renowned educator Henry Giroux has just written an essay about his country, the United States, in which he analyzes the cruel neoliberal policies and hatred of democracy since the 1970s. At the heart of its authoritarian and criminal state practices is a systemic war against workers, youth, blacks, and immigrants, increasingly defined by the rise of mass violence and a punishing state both at home and abroad (https://goo.su/R7D6).
It is evident that a systemic war against the peoples must go hand in hand with the militarization of our societies, a process that we are experiencing in so many countries and regions of Latin America, as well as the rest of the planet. The important thing is to understand its systemic nature and not a circumstantial one or linked to a particular government. This is the initial step to be able to assume why we should not opt for states, since they are precisely those responsible for the new militarism against people.
A few days ago the essay Experimenting with Militarization was published. The Wallmapu case by Fernando Pairicán and Wladimir Martínez (https://goo.su/lwIC9), in which they analyze two years of state of emergency in Mapuche territory in Chile and the consequences it has on the communities.
The first thing they highlight is that the current phase of militarization began during the government of the neoliberal Sebastián Piñera and continues to increase under the progressive Gabriel Boric. It is a state policy. The second is that this militarization has not had any real effect in reducing the level of violence, according to the abundant data they provide. Its cost is very clear: the feeling of permanent threat that the communities pay.
The presence of carabineros, police and now also the army in the Mapuche communities does not contribute to reducing crimes linked to drug trafficking, but it mainly affects young people who have been creating new radical autonomist organizations.
Pairicán and Martínez argue that militarization processes are a tactic of territorial reordering that restricts the links and interactions of those groups or populations under control, threatening the way in which they relate, interact and inhabit their environment.
In parallel, they conclude that a discourse was imposed that fostered new types of racism based on concepts such as narco-terrorists and violent groups, which fostered stigmas and prejudices towards the Mapuches, while justifying the military deployment in the area. Rather than being a solution, this model, which we can call violent colonial democracy, has become a problem.
Powerless in the face of the exponential increase in drug violence, the State intends to extend the militarization of Mapuche territory to new regions and cities.
In Peru, an Amnesty International report was published on July 18th on the massacres against Andean peasants during the protests from December 2022 to March 2023, entitled: ‘’Who Caused the Order? Responsibility of the Chain of Command for Deaths and Injuries in Protests in Peru’’, which left 50 dead and 1,400 injured (https://goo.su/qVCt).
All the data provided in the report point to the responsibility of President Dina Boluarte, who assumed office after the dismissal and arrest of President Pedro Castillo, and of the high military and police commands. In a single day, on January 9th, 2023, 18 people were killed and more than 100 were injured at Juliaca airport.
The report highlights that the National Police received orders to eliminate human barriers and that the commanders called the protesters terrorists, and that they authorized the use of high-caliber firearms to confront the opposing forces. They confronted social mobilization with the logic of war to exterminate the opposing side.
A year and a half after the massacres, there is no justice. Raúl Samillan, president of the Association of Martyrs and Victims of January 9th, describes the regime as a parliamentary dictatorship, a point that coincides with the essay on militarization in Wallmapu.
The geography of state violence is exactly the same as colonial violence for five centuries, something that is repeated throughout Latin America, from Guatemala and Mexico to Argentina and Chile. It is evident that this systemic war is directed against indigenous peoples, blacks and peasants. Before it was to steal gold and silver from them, now it consists of clearing territories to turn life into merchandise.
The geography of resistance is also the same as that of colonial and extractive violence. Our challenge continues to be to expand the geographies, peoples and social sectors involved in resistance to capitalism. It has not been easy. Militarization imposes limits on us, threatening the reproduction of life.
Original article by Raúl Zibechi, La Jornada, July 26th, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.