Racialized Geographies and the ‘War on Drugs’: Gender Violence, Militarization, and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples

Citation:

Hernández Castillo, Rosalva Aída. 2019. “Racialized Geographies and the ‘War on Drugs’: Gender Violence, Militarization, and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 24 (3): 635–52.

Author: Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:

En este artículo reflexiono sobre el impacto que está teniendo la llamada “guerra contra el narco” en los cuerpos y territorios de los pueblos indígenas de México. Tomando como ventana analítica las historias de vida de mujeres víctimas de violencia sexual en regiones militarizadas y paramilitarizadas, así como las historias de exclusión de mujeres indígenas presas en el marco de la lucha contra el narcotráfico, me interesa establecer un vínculo entre la ocupación mediante la violación de los cuerpos de las mujeres indígenas, su control y encarcelamiento, con la ocupación de sus territorios y el despojo de sus recursos naturales. Se trata de procesos que se dan demanera simultánea y que responden a las lógicas neocoloniales del capitalismo en cuya reproducción han sido fundamentales las desigualdades de género y raza.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:

This article examines the effects of the “war on drugs” on the bodies and territories of indigenous peoples of Mexico. This article uses the life histories of women victims of sexual violence in militarized and paramilitarized regions as the analytical framework to inspect, histories of exclusion of indigenous women incarcerated in the context of the war on drugs. This research argues that there are deeply entangled inter-connections between occupation of indigenous women’s bodies through the violation, control, and incarceration and the occupation of indigenous territories and dispossession of their natural resources. These processes take place simultaneously and respond to the neocolonial logics of capitalism, within which gender and race inequalities are essential for their reproduction.

Keywords: gender, human rights, law, Indigenous people

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Paramilitaries, Race, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2019

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