Constructing the Threat of Insurgency: Inherent Inequalities in the Development of the Guatemalan Counterinsurgent State

Abstract

SUMMARY The counterinsurgent state is the continuing legacy of political violence that afflicted Guatemala for the last thirty years of the 20th century. As the Guatemalan counterinsurgent state entrenched itself into the country's social fabric, it promoted a highly unequal social, cultural, and economic development that still plagues the country today. The paper explores how economic, gender and ethnic inequalities were heightened by the integration of counterinsurgency violence into the everyday functioning of the Guatemalan state. Focusing on the processes through which the insurgent threat was promoted, the paper analyses the lasting effects of counterinsurgency-fuelled social change in Guatemala.