Dissertation Project
Weaponizing Uncertainty: The Politics of Disappearance in Latin America
Why do states and armed groups perpetrate disappearances? Existing work on disappearances has focused on the use of this tactic to evade blame for violence against civilians, neglecting a consideration of its many sources of variation. Employing strict international legal definitions of disappearance obscures that there are a variety of types, that armed organizations often emphasize certain types over others depending on their goals and the targeted population, and that using these various types can communicate different messages to different audiences.
In my dissertation book project, I conceptualize enforced disappearance as a tactic in which agents of an armed organization deprive a person of their liberty and then refuse to acknowledge or provide information about their whereabouts, as well as their capture and/or fate. In other words, what qualifies an abduction as a disappearance is the withholding of information about the victim’s whereabouts following the abduction, usually coupled with denial of responsibility for the abduction itself and/or denial of any subsequent execution. I propose a new typology and theory of active disappearance as a form of violent communication – or what Lee Ann Fujii (2021) calls “violent display.” I argue that disappearances are more readily explained by perpetrators’ desire to express information about their political projects while simultaneously facilitating the demobilization of their domestic populations by “weaponizing uncertainty” and/or gaining approval from friendly observers rather than simply avoiding blame. The various ways that disappearances can be perpetrated – whether abductions and executions are acknowledged or denied and how victims’ bodies are disposed of in the case of lethal disappearances – express armed organizations’ power and presence, as well as different conceptions of political order, community belonging, and victims’ worth(lessness).
I primarily contribute to the literatures on violent repression, violence against civilians, and violence as communication by addressing their principal limitations: a focus on overt acts of predominantly lethal violence. I instead focus on a type of covert violence that, while usually lethal, at times is not. I also address a variety of actors, from states to nonstate political actors to criminal organizations. I use elements of process tracing and discourse analysis to analyze primary source documents I have collected during ten months of fieldwork in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico to show that blame evasion is not the principal benefit of using this type of violence, but rather armed organizations perpetrating it do so as a terrifying form of communication.
Why do states and armed groups perpetrate disappearances? Existing work on disappearances has focused on the use of this tactic to evade blame for violence against civilians, neglecting a consideration of its many sources of variation. Employing strict international legal definitions of disappearance obscures that there are a variety of types, that armed organizations often emphasize certain types over others depending on their goals and the targeted population, and that using these various types can communicate different messages to different audiences.
In my dissertation book project, I conceptualize enforced disappearance as a tactic in which agents of an armed organization deprive a person of their liberty and then refuse to acknowledge or provide information about their whereabouts, as well as their capture and/or fate. In other words, what qualifies an abduction as a disappearance is the withholding of information about the victim’s whereabouts following the abduction, usually coupled with denial of responsibility for the abduction itself and/or denial of any subsequent execution. I propose a new typology and theory of active disappearance as a form of violent communication – or what Lee Ann Fujii (2021) calls “violent display.” I argue that disappearances are more readily explained by perpetrators’ desire to express information about their political projects while simultaneously facilitating the demobilization of their domestic populations by “weaponizing uncertainty” and/or gaining approval from friendly observers rather than simply avoiding blame. The various ways that disappearances can be perpetrated – whether abductions and executions are acknowledged or denied and how victims’ bodies are disposed of in the case of lethal disappearances – express armed organizations’ power and presence, as well as different conceptions of political order, community belonging, and victims’ worth(lessness).
I primarily contribute to the literatures on violent repression, violence against civilians, and violence as communication by addressing their principal limitations: a focus on overt acts of predominantly lethal violence. I instead focus on a type of covert violence that, while usually lethal, at times is not. I also address a variety of actors, from states to nonstate political actors to criminal organizations. I use elements of process tracing and discourse analysis to analyze primary source documents I have collected during ten months of fieldwork in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico to show that blame evasion is not the principal benefit of using this type of violence, but rather armed organizations perpetrating it do so as a terrifying form of communication.
Working Papers
Habeas (Non) Corpus: A Typology of Disappearance
This paper introduces my typology of enforced disappearance using examples from a variety of cases within and beyond Latin America.
"Por Algo Será": Disappearances in Authoritarian Argentina
This paper is an article version of the overall dissertation argument with evidence from Argentina's military regime (1976-1983), which is often referred to as a "quintessential case" when studying disappearances.
"Subversives" and "Delinquents": Disappearances as a Form of Social Cleansing
This paper discusses how disappearances are targeted and which types are typically used by whom and against whom using evidence from Colombia's civil war, particularly 1985-2005 when paramilitaries were the principal perpetrators of enforced disappearance.
This paper introduces my typology of enforced disappearance using examples from a variety of cases within and beyond Latin America.
"Por Algo Será": Disappearances in Authoritarian Argentina
This paper is an article version of the overall dissertation argument with evidence from Argentina's military regime (1976-1983), which is often referred to as a "quintessential case" when studying disappearances.
"Subversives" and "Delinquents": Disappearances as a Form of Social Cleansing
This paper discusses how disappearances are targeted and which types are typically used by whom and against whom using evidence from Colombia's civil war, particularly 1985-2005 when paramilitaries were the principal perpetrators of enforced disappearance.