This article analyzes the efforts of organized indigenous peoples to exercise their own forms of law and justice within the context of social violence and impunity that characterizes postwar Guatemala. Through an ethnographic exploration of alternative justice practices in the region of Santa Cruz del Quiché, it aims to contribute to discussions around the ‘anthropology of the state’. Specifically, the article describes some of the different phenomena or social forces that compete to exercise sovereignty in the region and reflects on what these reveal about the nature of the contemporary state in Guatemala.
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