The Construction of Peace in the Chiapas Highlands: Indigenous Resistance to Structural Violence

• Author: Leonardo Nicolás González Torres,Efrén Orozco López
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20975013
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20975013

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 236, Vol. 48 No. 1, January 2021, 217–230

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20975013

© 2020 Latin American Perspectives

217

The Construction of Peace in the Chiapas Highlands

Indigenous Resistance to Structural Violence

by

Efrén Orozco López and Leonardo Nicolás González Torres

Translated by

Mariana Ortega-Breña

The indigenous community of Acteal in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, has been

subject to both direct and structural violence in the form of the massacre that took place

there in 1997 and the impunity that has persisted ever since. In response to the violence,

the community has constructed political, social, and cultural alternatives through the

movement known as the Las Abejas of Acteal Civil Society Organization. Its reconstruc-

tion of the social fabric has included participation in assembies, volunteer work for the

collective, exchange of experiences, food production for subsistence, a solidarity economy,

and the systematization and sharing of experiences.

La comunidad indígena de Acteal en las tierras altas de Chiapas, México, ha sido objeto

de violencia tanto directa y estructural a partir de la masacre que tuvo lugar allí en 1997,

así como la impunidad que ha persistido desde entonces. En respuesta a la violencia,

la comunidad ha construido alternativas políticas, sociales y culturales a través del

movimiento conocido como Organización Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal. Su recon-

strucción del tejido social ha incluido la participación en asambleas, el voluntariado para

el colectivo, el intercambio de experiencias, la producción de alimentos para subsistencia,

una economía solidaria, y la sistematización e intercambio de experiencias.

Keywords: Indigenous struggle, Defense of territory, Direct and structural violence,

Las Abejas de Acteal, Social fabric construction

Resistance to violence is a long-term historical process beginning during the

conquest of the Americas and continuing through the colonial period to the new

internal colonialism instituted by the new nation-states. Throughout the twen-

tieth century it obscured racial hierarchies in the interest of building a mestizo

society. In recent decades there has been a shift toward respect and tolerance of

diversity via discourses on interculturality and human rights. In this context,

some resistance movements have used peaceful tools to confront violence,

including the legal remedies offered by international treaties such as Convention

169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, so-called legal pluralism, and

Efrén Orozco López is a research professor at the Centro Universitario de los Valles of the

Universidad de Guadalajara. Leonardo Nicolás González Torres has been a research professor in

social sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. Mariana Ortega-Breña is a free-

lance translator based in Mexico City.

975013LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20975013LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVESOrozco and González / CONSTRUCTION OF PEACE IN CHIAPAS

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