The Rise of theRondas Campesinasin Peru

Abstract

The rondas campesinas (literally, 'peasant rounds') in Peru are organs of community justice. Existing primarily in rural communities, they have a history of several centuries, but have undergone recent transformations in their functions and their relationship with the state. The rondas campesinas are formed by their own members in the peasant communities. Their primary objective is the fight against abigeas (cattle rustlers). To this end they were organized in shifts with compulsory participation by the men. They were found necessary as a result of the widespread corruption of officials, mainly the police and the judiciary who persistently failed to prosecute these criminals and who in many cases were suspected of complicity in their activities. Their functions have been progressively expanded to include activities other than self-defence and nightwatch patrols. They have come to cover activities of daily life such as development projects, the control and prosecution of some officials, and the settlement of family, land and other disputes in a parallel administration of justice (Bonifaz 1991: 165). They were finally recognized officially in the 1980s. In the early 1990s government set up Self-Defence Committees or Armed Rondas Campesinas modelled on the popular rondas campesinas Origins and Evolution The origins of the rondas campesinas cannot be strictly determined. We cannot say that they were born in a given time in the country's history. We can however locate their emergence if we refer to the historical research done on the Incanato. In the social organization of the old Inca empire, we find three large groups, those of royalty, nobility and the common people. This last stratum was formed by three orders: the hatun runa, the mitimaes and the yanaconas. Historians agree that the most prominent sector was that of the mitimaes. They had the most important role