Mortal Doubt. Anthony W. Fontes
MORTAL DOUBT
ATELIER: ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Kevin Lewis O’Neill, Series Editor
1. Mortal Doubt: Transnational Gangs and Social Order in Guatemala City, by Anthony W. Fontes
MORTAL DOUBT
TRANSNATIONAL GANGS AND
SOCIAL ORDER IN GUATEMALA CITY
Anthony W. Fontes
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2018 by Anthony W. Fontes
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fontes, Anthony W., author.
Title: Mortal doubt : transnational gangs and social order in Guatemala City / Anthony W. Fontes.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] | Series: Atelier: ethnographic inquiry in the twenty-first century ; 1 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018014806 (print) | LCCN 2018018645 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520969599 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520297081 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520297098 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Gangs—Guatemala—Guatemala. | Violence—Guatemala—Guatemala. | Guatemala (Guatemala)—Social conditions.
Classification: LCC HV6439.G92 (ebook) | LCC HV6439.G92 F66 2018 (print) | DDC 364.106/60972811—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014806
Manufactured in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
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For Gwendolyn, Norah, and Audrey Alabama
They think they can burn the devil out, but wouldn’t that mean setting fire to the whole world?
—Juande, former member of the Mara Salvatrucha, Pavón prison, Guatemala
Contents
1. Portrait of a “Real” Marero
2. Emissaries of the Violent Peace
PART TWO. Worlds and Underworlds
The Road to Prison
3. Porous Prisons
The Prisoners and the Cascabel
4. Extorted Life
PART THREE. Spectacle, Structure, and Agency
Make It a Global
5. Made-for-Media Murder
Farewell, Guatemala City
6. Liminal Redemption
Epilogue: Of Violent Others and Orders of Violence
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Notes on Methodology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
FIGURES
1. Portraits of the disappeared plastered around zone 1 of Guatemala City
2. Marero in isolation lockdown, Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
3. Former Barrio18 member in his quarters in Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
4. Where city and cemetery meet
5. Children and puppy playing in the Guatemala City General Cemetery
6. A mass grave in the Guatemala City General Cemetery
7. Andy, protected witness for the Guatemalan government, May 11, 2012
9. El Soldado and his son in front of their home in Ciudad del Sol, Villa Nueva, in 2003
10. Sepulchers in the Guatemala City General Cemetery
11. Tenements for the dead, Guatemala City General Cemetery
12. Mara Salvatrucha graffiti on gravestone, Guatemala City General Cemetery
13. Child’s doll strung up on the outer fence of Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
14. “Gate of the Hopeless. One Suffers and It Is Hard.”
15. Newspaper article on the fire at Comayagua prison
16. A prisoner and his family on visiting day, Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
17. Ex-marero inmates preparing for la visita
18. Byron Lima presidential campaign poster
19. Marero in the isolation block of Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
20. Mouse (RIP) in the isolation block of Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
21. Denizens of the isolation block, Canada prison, Escuintla, Guatemala
22. Newspaper article on the murder of an elderly fruit vendor
23. Six alleged members of an extortionist