ABSTRACT
The patrol system has left tragic scars on the Guatemalan highland communities, where poverty, fear, petty feuding and the replacement of traditional legal systems by arbitrary military force have made the patrol system a dangerous conduit for vigilante justice and abuse of power. The civil patrol system developed from the army’s desire to reorganize the countryside in its own image. The elections weakened the military’s hold on the national psyche and prompted the resignation or flight of many patrol jefes involved in the atrocities which accompanied the establishment of the system. Trials of the patrol system began at the height of la violencia, at a time when a few thousand poorly armed guerrillas seemed about to gain control of the western highlands. The startling rapidity with which highland Indians were absorbed into the patrols was primarily activated by fear. For former guerrillas and supporters, becoming a jefe was a safer option in long term survival than being a patroller.
