De facto sovereignties and forced internal displacement: a window to understanding multifaceted violence in Guerrero, Mexico

ABSTRACT

What causes forced internal displacement in Guerrero, Mexico? Our study (2011–2018) draws on Guerrero’s convulsed recent history, Hansen and Stepputat’s notion of de facto sovereignty as an emerging and tentative form of power embedded in violence and Gerlach’s evaluation of (non)state actors in Extremely Violent Societies as perpetrators of violence and displacement. We suggest that the presence of multiple and fragmented de facto sovereignties produces high levels of violence. Fieldwork carried out in Guerrero includes participant observation of displaced groups and in-depth interviews with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Findings illustrate the complexity of local contexts that give rise to forced displacement. While rural poor are forced to displace collectively, displacement of individuals and families tends to be more middle class, drawing on economic and social capital to resettle in other parts of Mexico.

RESUMEN

¿Cuáles son las causas del desplazamiento interno forzado en Guerrero, México? Nuestro estudio (2011-2018) analiza la convulsa historia reciente de Guerrero, a partir de la noción de soberanía de facto propuesta por Hansen y Stepputat como una forma emergente y tentativa de poder incrustada en la violencia, y la evaluación de Gerlach sobre el papel de los actores (no) estatales en sociedades extremadamente violentas como perpetradores de violencia y desplazamiento. Sugerimos que la presencia de soberanías de facto múltiples y fragmentadas produce altos niveles de violencia. El trabajo de campo realizado en Guerrero incluye observación participante de grupos desplazados y entrevistas en profundidad con Personas Desplazadas Internamente (PDI). Los hallazgos ilustran la complejidad de los contextos locales que dan lugar al desplazamiento forzado. Si bien los pobres de las zonas rurales se ven obligados a desplazarse colectivamente, el desplazamiento de individuos y familias tiende a ocurrir más entre la clase media, recurriendo al capital económico y social para reasentarse en otras partes de México.

KEYWORDS:

• Internal forced displacement
• Guerrero
• criminal violence
• de facto sovereignties
• (non)state actors

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• Desplazamiento forzado interno
• Guerrero
• violencia criminal
• soberanías de facto
• actores no estatales

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use the words “campesino” and “peasant” interchangeably.

2. Acronyms for Mexican organizations and institutions are in Spanish. The OCESP is recognized internationally for its defense of the environment and for the cases of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who were arrested in 1999 by the Mexican army. In 2011, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued recommendations to the Mexican government and noted the violation of the human rights of both peasant ecologists. Montiel and Cabrera received the Goldman Prize and the Chico Mendes Prize for the defense of the forests of Guerrero (Quintero Romero 2010).

3. Altogether, 297,193 people were reported to have disappeared, and 185,117 (62.29%) were subsequently found. 112,076 (37.31%) continue to be disappeared. See Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y No Localizadas (RNPDO), https://versionpublicarnpdno.segob.gob.mx/Dashboard/ContextoGeneral (accessed 10 June 2023).

4. The Organization of Ecologist Campesinos from the Petatlán Sierra and Coyuca de Catalán.

5. Guerrero’s Statute 487, not being a federal law, requires displaced people to remain in the state to receive assistance. http://forodfi.cndh.org.mx/Content/doc/Normativo/Ley-487-DPI-Guerrero.pdf (accessed 24 April 2019).

6. Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of those interviewed.

7. The organization, unnamed for security reasons, has been labeled both as a local “self-defense group” and as legally accepted “community-police”. Given the context of extreme violence, the boundaries between each have blurred in recent years.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Morna Macleod

Morna Macleod MA PhD in Latin American Studies, Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) and, over the past nine years, professor and researcher at the Autonomous State University of Morelos (UAEM) and member of the National System of Researchers (SNI – Level II). She was the founder and first coordinator of the monthly seminar on Forced Internal Displacement, which brings together researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners from Mexico and Central America. Her current lines of research include multifaceted violence in Mexico and Morelos; emotional communities as a form of resisting political violence; memory and testimony. She has worked in human rights, in international aid agencies and as an independent international consultant. She is the (co)author of numerous books, articles in journals and book chapters in Spanish and English, published in various Latin American countries, Europe and Australia.

Libertad Argüello Cabrera

Libertad Argüello Cabrera CONAHCYT researcher comissioned to CONAVIM (Comisión Nacional para prevenir y erradicar violencia contra mujeres), researcher and member of the National System of Researchers (SNI). Argüello has a BA in History from the national university (UNAM) and an MA in Social and Political Science, also from the UNAM. Her PhD thesis in Sociology (Colegio de México) is on Guerrero: “In the Shadow of Counterinsurgency: Chronic Violence and Processes of Political Identification in Atoyac de Álvarez, Guerrero”. She has specialized in the analysis of political violence, human rights violations and sociopolitical conflicts in the second half of the 20th and the 21st centuries in Mexico. She is a member of the Seminar on Forced Internal Displacement, an active member of other seminars and participates in social groups which accompany the relatives of the disappeared.

Alba Patricia Hernández Soc

Alba Patricia Hernández Soc PhD in History and Ethnohistory at the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH-INAH). Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (UNAM). She has given conferences both nationally and internationally, and has published chapters in books, articles in academic journals and national media. She is a member of the National System of Researchers (Level 1), and participates in various academic networks, including the Seminar on Forced Internal Displacement. She is doing post doctorate studies at the Autonomous State University of Morelos (UAEM), supported by CONAHCYT. Her research areas include: territory, indigenous peoples, campesinos and the forced displacement of people.