Political Movements and Violence in Central America

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Figures, Tables, and Maps......Page 11
Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 15
Acknowledgments......Page 21
1 Introduction......Page 25
Rural Contention and Repression in Guatemala......Page 27
Urban Contention and Repression in El Salvador......Page 32
Contentious Movements and Political Violence......Page 35
The Configuration of Political Opportunities......Page 38
Why We Do What We Do......Page 45
Overview of the Book......Page 54
Part One: From Grievances to Contentious Movements......Page 55
Part Two: Opportunity, Contention, and Repression......Page 56
Part 1 From Grievances to Contentious Movements......Page 59
2 The Social Construction of Grievances......Page 61
The Problem of Determining Who Does What and Why......Page 64
Socioeconomic Grievances......Page 67
Long-standing Deprivation......Page 70
New Threats to Economic Security......Page 71
Sociopolitical Grievances......Page 79
Lack of State Responsiveness......Page 80
Frustrated Rising Expectations......Page 81
Accidents......Page 83
The Expressive Dimension......Page 85
The Central American Comparison......Page 87
Conclusion......Page 89
3 The Emergence of Urban Contentious Movements......Page 93
Contentious University Students......Page 97
Teachers and Political Contention......Page 102
Organizing Labor in El Salvador......Page 104
Salvadoran Revolutionary Movements......Page 107
Contentious Mass Organizations......Page 111
Conclusion......Page 118
4 The Emergence of Urban Contentious Movements......Page 121
Revolutionary Organizations I: The 1960s......Page 123
Guatemalan Students and Political Contention......Page 125
Recreating the Guatemalan Labor Movement......Page 131
FASGUA and the Reemergence of the Labor Movement......Page 132
The CNT and Increasing Labor Contentiousness......Page 134
Revolutionaries and the Labor Movement......Page 136
The Laugerud Political Opening......Page 137
CNUS and the Peak of Labor Mobilization......Page 138
Persistence of the PGT and FAR......Page 141
The Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres......Page 143
The Organizacíon del Pueblo in Armas......Page 146
The Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca......Page 147
Students......Page 148
Revolutionary Organizations......Page 149
Conclusion......Page 152
5 Contentious Peasants and the Problem of Consciousness Raising......Page 154
Contentious Peasants in Guatemala......Page 156
Contentious Peasants in El Salvador......Page 164
Consciousness-Raising and the Ideology of the Oppressed......Page 172
The Central American Comparison......Page 186
Conclusion......Page 188
Part 2 Opportunity, Contention, and Repression......Page 191
6 Cycles of Contention......Page 193
Cycles of Contention in Guatemala......Page 195
Data and Sources......Page 196
Measuring Nonviolent Contentious Activities......Page 198
Measuring Illegal and Violent Contentious Activities......Page 205
Data and Sources......Page 208
Measuring Nonviolent Contentious Activities......Page 210
Measuring Illegal and Violent Activities......Page 213
Concerning Analytic Techniques......Page 215
Conclusion......Page 217
The Configuration of Political Opportunities......Page 218
Political Access......Page 219
Elite Alignments......Page 220
Repression......Page 222
Political Opportunities and Guatemalan Contentious Movements......Page 223
1. Closed opportunities; social movements demobilized, 1954......Page 225
2. Slow opening of opportunities; slow return of movement activity, 1955 through 1958......Page 226
3. Relatively open; increasing activity, 1959 to 10/1961......Page 228
4. Restricting opportunity; rapid movement escalation, 11/1961 to 5/1962......Page 229
6. Closed opportunities; demobilized, 4/1963 through 1973......Page 230
7. Opening of opportunities; slow return of activity, 1974 to 2/1976......Page 234
8. Relatively open; rapid escalation, 3/1976 to 6/1978......Page 236
9. Restricting opportunities; continuing escalation, 7/1978 to 12/1978......Page 238
10. Closing opportunities; decreasing activity, 1979–1980......Page 239
11. Closed; demobilized, 1981 through 1984......Page 240
12. Slow opening of opportunities; slow return of activity, 1985 on......Page 243
Predicting Social Movement Activity......Page 244
Conclusion......Page 250
Appendix: Guatemalan Political Violence Data......Page 251
8 Changing Political Opportunities and Contentious Challengers......Page 254
The First Campaign: Late 1960s/Early 1970s......Page 255
The Second Campaign: Late 1970s/1980......Page 257
The Third Campaign: Mid-1980s/Early 1990s......Page 263
Predicting Social Movement Activity......Page 268
The Central American Comparison......Page 269
Elite Alignments and Political Access......Page 270
The Relative Capacity and Propensity for Repression......Page 276
Conclusion......Page 283
Appendix: Salvador    Repression Data......Page 285
9 Contention and Repression......Page 289
The Protest-Repression Paradox......Page 290
Evidence from Guatemala......Page 295
Conclusion......Page 314
Precursor Movements......Page 316
The Cycle of the Late 1970s/Early 1980s......Page 318
The Cycle of the Mid to Late 1980s......Page 330
Contention, Repression and the Individual......Page 339
Conclusion......Page 346
11 Conclusion......Page 348
The Configuration of Political Opportunities......Page 349
Commitment......Page 351
References......Page 353
Index......Page 387