Abstract

VILAS, Carlos M.. Lynchings and Political conflict in The Andes. Folios [online]. 2007, n.25, pp.3-26. ISSN 0123-4870.

In 2004, two municipalitys mayors form the aimara Andes of Peru and Bolivia were subjected to mass lynchings as a result of the apparent culmination of violent political confrontations. This paper deals with these events as dramatic illustrations of the transformations the Andean communities experienced during recent decades in their internal dynamics, as well as in the articulation of local politics to processes and institutions beyond the communal limits. Structural precariousness combined with the state's inability or reluctance to come to terms with social or political demands from relevant segments of the people in the communities set the socioeconomic and institutional stage for lynchings. In contrast with approaches relating these events to an alleged indigenous cultural identity, the analysis points to the impact of the communities' political and cultural transformations, upon the way they deal with both their internal tensions and conflicts and their relationship to the state, thus interpreting both cases as specific though brutal manifestations of those conflicts.

Keywords : Community; politic conflict; lynching; central state; intern conflict.

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