Navigating Violence: Fear and Everyday Life in Colombia and Mexico

Helen Berents,Charlotte Ten Have

doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.v6i1.373

Helen Berents, Charlotte Ten Have

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.v6i1.373

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Abstract

Violence and insecurity are often read as totalising narratives of communities in parts of Latin America, flattening the complexity of everyday life and the responses of occupants who suffer from fear. In this article we draw on ethnographic research undertaken in los Altos de Cazucá in Colombia and in San Luis Potosí in Mexico. While both sites are distinct locations with different historic, economic, social and political contexts they share features of communities affected by violence and insecurity: distrust of institutions of the state; rationalisations for managing violence in daily life; and narratives of fear that appear woven through the fabric of conversations. However, fear and violence are not all-encompassing experiences and individuals in both these communities describe practices of navigation of violence that draw on positive communal experiences. This article explores how, in these communities where violence comes to be expected but never normalised, people navigate their everyday lives.

Highlights

Both Colombians and Mexicans have long experienced the effects of violence in their countries
Similar to Colombia in the 1990s, the Mexican state has lost its monopoly over the use of force which is evidenced by the private armed groups, self‐defence groups, corrupt state forces and drug trafficking organisation which routinely use violence as a tool
Occupants of San Luis Potosí and Cazucá live in contexts of insecurity and risk

Summary

Introduction

Both Colombians and Mexicans have long experienced the effects of violence in their countries. As a result Mexican citizens have become trapped in networks of extortion and coercion, in which both state forces and criminal organisations prey with impunity (Magaloni et al 2015: 28) In both countries the violence has affected people unevenly but both situations are characterised by widespread insecurity, the targeting of individuals such as human rights advocates and journalists (Molzahn et al 2012; Human Rights Watch 2014; Tate 2007), the prevalence of stories of death, torture and violence in print and visual media (Brambila 2014), and the undermining of a sense of security and of rights. In the second part we explore accounts of structural and direct violence experienced by participants in both Colombia and Mexico and the consequences for their lives These experiences form the basis for understanding these individuals as skilled navigators of their everyday lives. We aspire to prompt more critical reflection on how these topics are described and understood, and argue for the capacity of individuals to navigate their everyday lives in ways that respond to and ameliorate the effects of violence and insecurity

Methodology and acknowledging researcher positionality

Findings

Conclusion