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5 - Ordering Police Violence

Extrajudicial Killing in Wartime Guatemala

from Part II - Institutional Origins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2023

Rachel A. Schwartz
Rachel A. Schwartz
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
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Summary

Chapter 5 examines the wartime origins of undermining rules governing extrajudicial killing by Guatemala’s National Police (PN). It argues that the development of such procedures is rooted in the specialization of the police force and the broad discretion granted to concentrated groups of police elites amid the late 1960s period of perceived threat escalation. Specifically, with the creation of highly insulated elite investigative units like the Detective Corps [Cuerpo de Detectives], previous extralegal violence waged by right-wing death squads was institutionalized as routine state activity. The new rules were sanctioned by top military intelligence officials, who devised clear procedures for how to frame the resulting killings to the public.

Keywords

Guatemalacivil warpoliceextrajudicial killingsocial cleansingcounterinsurgencymilitaryintelligenceviolence
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Chapter
Information
Undermining the State from Within
The Institutional Legacies of Civil War in Central America
 , pp. 111 - 127
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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