Dissertations and Theses

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Department

International Relations

Keywords

Indigenous Rights, Latin America, Marxism

Abstract

"The main purpose of this research is to understand the nature of the relationship between leftist armed guerrillas and indigenous rights in the Latin American region. I argue that the ethnic component and indigenous mobilization have greatly determined the political and social achievements of Marxist insurgencies active in many countries of the sub-continent during the second half of the twentieth century. In order to test my hypothesis, I devote particular attention to the historical exposition and critical analysis of both the ethnic problem and Marxism, in its European, Russian, Chinese, and Latin American versions. Subsequently, I focus on the case studies of Guatemala and Peru, as exemplary of different results obtained by radical armed groups. The Guatemalan civil war and its outcome demonstrate the importance of indigenous people’s mobilization for the partial success and reintegration into civil life of Marxist guerrilla movements. Conversely, the Peruvian conflict points out the dangers of a dogmatic ideology that led to unprecedented violence and sparked state authoritarianism and populism. The critical assessment of the two case studies is carried out in a qualitative manner and takes into account two main variables, namely the armed groups’ degree of support for indigenous grievances and their level of dogmatism. My hypothesis proves to be valid, at least in the cases of Guatemala and Peru, as I discover that a high level ofsupport for the ethnic question coupled with a low level of dogmatism of the leftist insurgencies is linked to higher indigenous mobilization and relatively better performances of the armed guerrillas. As a consequence of these findings, I expand my analysis to the whole Latin American region and to other countries beyond this area, also challenged by the threat of political violence linked to both radical ideology and ethnicity. I conclude by highlighting the importance of the nation building process for the prevention of further instability and by recommending a manifold approach that factors the reintegration of armed groups members into society and the creation of a participatory state."

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.