Institutionalized Violence and Demystification of the Scapegoat in Guerra en El Paraíso

Abstract

This article examines the novel Guerra en El Paraíso, in which Carlos Montemayor reinterprets stereotypes of guerrilla fighters prevalent in an official discourse for whom violence against rural populations is justified for the sake of “social peace”. For Montemayor, the guerrilla uprisings result from institutional violence exercised by the State, which seeks to restore its own institutions using the insurgents as scapegoat.

Keywords: institutionalized violence, structural violence, scapegoat, guerrilla, necrostate