ABSTRACT
As Abrahams (1998) established in Vigilant Citizens, vigilantism is a frontier phenomenon (see also Abrahams 2003). For vigilantism to thrive there must be widespread dissatisfaction with justice. As with other forms of vigilantism, lynchings embody a complex relationship between citizens and the Guatemalan state. Lynchings critique state inaction regarding crime, while paradoxically enunciating a desire for better provision of state justice. State apathy towards lynchings is seen to legitimise them, while state-led anti-lynching campaigns seek to stigmatise them. The Guatemalan state has used lynchings as a mask for death squads, as a tool to critique suggestions for expanding the provision of customary law for indigenous Maya communities and has simultaneously outlawed patrol-based vigilantism while also encouraging civilian patrols in areas where gangs have gained territorial control. Drawing upon literature on Weberian (1958) and Giddensian (1985) ideas of monopolies of legitimate state violence and Andersonian anthropology on imagining the state (Anderson 1991; Hansen & Stepputat 2001; Das & Poole 2004), this chapter explores the interplay between contrasting conceptions of law and justice (Rawls 1971), including rule of law, customary law, “indigenous justice”, popular justice, mano dura (Godoy 2006) and how they play out in dissonant understandings of the “justice” in lynchings in Todos Santos and beyond.
