States of violence: Indigenous women migrants in the era of neoliberal multicriminalism

Abstract

The oral histories of indigenous women migrants from Latin America relate human rights violations at every step: in their homes, where violence and impunity compel them to migrate; as they cross the wide expanse of Mexico, encountering a gamut of dangers and a vast sea of impunity, and once they enter the United States, where as asylum seekers they are incarcerated under laws designed to impeded terrorism, or face new vulnerability to partners or strangers if they are undocumented. This is not what was supposed to happen. The multicultural reforms of the 1990s in various Latin American countries that recognized a range of rights for indigenous peoples generated hope and unprecedented social mobilization for indigenous women seeking to fully access their human rights. However since that time, life has gotten more difficult. The promises of neoliberal multiculturalism of the 1990s, however constrained, now seem a distant memory. Theorists have dedicated significant effort to understanding the limitations of neoliberal rights regimes for indigenous peoples, but today, the generalized irrelevance of those regimes suggests that we need to shift our lens. Based on migrant women's oral histories, I explore how indigenous women are being interpellated by states and other social actors in ways that render even their most basic human rights unattainable. Further, I expand on that analysis to consider how state and nonstate power is working in the current moment, which I argue is characterized not so much by neoliberal multiculturalism, as by neoliberal multicriminalism in which violent, corrupt, and lawless states are driven by profit motives in massive scale illegal economies that lack any reasonable regulation or protection of basic human rights.

The Persistence of White Supremacy: Indigenous Women Migrants and the Structures of Settler Capitalism

“…In this context, “rights rang hollow” (Hale, Calla, and Mullings , 87), and the rights struggles and Indigenous‐autonomy claims of neoliberal multiculturalism waned in the face of obscene levels of bloodshed and massive impunity. This was neoliberal multicriminalism, and Nadania experienced the violence generated by it at home and on her journey north (Speed ).…”

De la Mano Dura al Enfrentamiento Directo: vaivenes de las políticas públicas en El Salvador

“…En Brasil, por ejemplo, la seguridad ciudadana conjuga una relación entre el Estado, las organizaciones criminales y el capital privado (Garmany & Galdeano 2017). En el caso mexicano, la seguridad pública pasó de la guerra contra el narcotráfico a ser controlada por otros actores: bandas paramilitares involucradas en el vigilantismo, ejércitos privados y fuerzas de seguridad privadas que trabajan para redes globalizadas de las industrias de drogas, armas y tráfico humano (Speed 2016).…”

Contemporary Indigenous issues

“…Recent work on Indigenous women's movements is beginning to pry open the black box of Indigenous mobilization to reveal important gendered dynamics as well as address the controversy over how to reconcile Indigenous women's individual rights with their collective rights as Indigenous peoples within the framework of self-determination and self-government (Hernández Castillo and Speed 2006; Rousseau and Morales Hudon 2017). Research in this area has also begun to address the causes and consequences of violence against Indigenous women, including acts of feminicide that occur in a context of social violence and impunity (Sieder 2011;Speed 2016). This special issue makes a significant contribution to this research agenda by suggesting that violence against Indigenous women is a multifaceted problem that will require a multifaceted solution, including cultural models of dialogue and reparations as a means to guarantee access to justice for Indigenous women.…”