Lógicas de guerra e a reprodução das margens: Gangues, mulheres e violência sexuada em El Salvador

• Main Author: Sílvia Roque
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2012-03-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: delinquency; El Salvador; post war; sexual violence; victimization; women’s studies
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/4830
• ISSN: 0254-1106; 2182-7435

Twenty years after the Peace Accords (1992), El Salvador is still considered one of the most violent countries in the world. The most visible and feared agents of this violence are the gangs which have fought each other for some two decades, and which are accused of various acts of sexualized violence, including against their own female members. These women, who are simultaneously or alternately victims and perpetrators, are generally viewed as abnormal or perverse examples of womanhood, exceptions and therefore ignored. This article explores the reasons why so little attention has been given to these women’s motivation and participation in violent groups, and to the violence inflicted upon them. It deconstructs the clear cut oppositions and dichotomies associated to war and peace, highlighting the fluidity of the connections between them. The conception of war and peace as well defined separable states in which war is viewed as an exceptional and legitimate form of violence is not considered to be neutral from the point of view of the reproduction of violence in “peace” time. Indeed, it is argued that it ultimately masks and justifies dehumanization processes, which doubly victimize women within gangs and cause them to be neglected in the academic literature and by victim support and violence prevention policies.