The Politics of Violence in Latin America

Description

Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the world. It has suffered waves of repressive authoritarian rule, organized armed insurgency and civil war, violent protest, and ballooning rates of criminal violence. But is violence hard-wired into Latin America? This is a critical reassessment of the ways in which violence in Latin America is addressed and understood. Previous approaches have relied on structural perspectives, attributing the problem of violence to Latin America's colonial past or its conflictual contemporary politics. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, this volume argues that violence is often rooted more in contingent outcomes than in deeply embedded structures. Addressing topics ranging from the root sources of violence in Haiti to kidnapping in Colombia, from the role of property rights in patterns of violence to the challenges of peacebuilding, The Politics of Violence in Latin America is an essential step towards understanding the causes and contexts of violence-and changing the mechanisms that produce it. Front Cover Half Title Page Series Page Full Title Page Copyright Page CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION | Structural vs. Contingent Violence in Latin America PART I 1 | Making Sense of Haiti’s State Fragility and Violence: Combining Structure and Contingency? 2 | Operation Condor as an International Systemof State Violence and Terror: A Historical-Structural Analysis PART II 3 | Written in Black and Red: Murder as aCommunicative Act in Mexico 4 | Protest and Police “Excesses” in Chile: The Limits of Social Accountability 5 | The Police Ombudsman in Brazil as a Potential Mechanism to Reduce Violence 6 | Democracy, Threat, and Repression: Kidnapping and Repressive Dynamics during the Colombian Conflict 7 | To End the War in Colombia: Conversatorios among Security Forces, Ex-Guerrillas, and Political Elites, and Ceasefire Seminars-Workshops for the Technical Sub-Commission CONTRIBUTORS INDEX Back Cover