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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: June 29, 2019 at 9:11:21 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Socialisms]: Puma on Gibler, 'Torn from the World: > A Guerrilla's Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > John Gibler. Torn from the World: A Guerrilla's Escape from a Secret > Prison in Mexico. City Lights Publishers, 2018. 260 pages. $16.95 > (paper), ISBN 978-0-87286-752-9. > > Reviewed by Jorge Puma (University of Notre Dame) > Published on H-Socialisms (June, 2019) > Commissioned by Gary Roth > > Political Persecution in Mexico > > Since the end of the Cold War and the 1994 Zapatista uprising in > Chiapas, left-wing scholars have downplayed the evolution of the > mainstream Mexican Left and popular nationalist discourse. Instead, > journalists like John Gliber have interpreted Mexican episodes of > resistance against neoliberal practices through the lens of > postcolonial and decolonial frameworks. Nonetheless, it is impossible > to avoid the 1970s counterinsurgent repression of guerrillas and > social movements when looking into the unresolved kidnapping and > murder in September 2014 of forty-three Ayotzinapa college students > in the southern state of Guerrero. > > John Gliber's _Torn from the World: A Guerrilla's Escape from a > Secret Prison in Mexico_ explores the detention and torture of > Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) guerrilla Andrés Tzompaxtle Tecpile > in 1996 and his incredible escape from Mexican security forces. The > book appeared originally in Spanish in 2014 by the commercial > publishing house Tusquetes. Gliber prepared the English translation > as part of a book series about state violence and repression and will > share space with books by Noam Chomsky and Mumia Abu-Jamal. _Torn > from the World_ recounts the reactions to those events of > journalists, the EPR leadership, Mexican newspapers, human rights > activists, Mexican authorities, the victim, and his family. Gliber > maintains that the testimony of Andrés Tzompaxtle must be > acknowledged despite its contradictions and gaps because it brings to > light the return of 1970s dirty war strategies of counterinsurgency > in contemporary Mexico and the use of those same tactics by state > agents and organized crime in the pursuit of personal gain (see pp. > 248-49). _Torn from the World_ recovers an understudied guerrilla > movement (EPR) and contextualizes the violence in Guerrero in the > late 1990s. Moreover, this incident is a useful reminder of the > weakness of the "democratic transition" (1988-2000) and forces us to > look outside Mexico City or Chiapas. Gliber has written a powerful > exposé of the Mexican state violence, but he does not discuss the > role of the guerrilla at a moment when democratization and non-armed > struggle developed in this region. > > As an American journalist based in Mexico, John Gliber has covered a > broad range of conflicts in southern Mexico since the late 1990s, > from the teachers' uprising at Oaxaca in 2006 to the struggles for > indigenous rights in Chiapas and Guerrero. Recently, he has worked on > an oral history of the Ayotzinapa Massacre in 2014 that will appear > in the same series as _Torn from the World_. Gliber continues the > tradition established by John Reed's _Insurgent Mexico_ (1914) and > John Kenneth Turner's _Barbarous Mexico_ (1910) of engaged journalism > that documents, this time in Guerrero, the ongoing process of > resistance and repression. He argues that this process reflects the > effects of a colonial regime that oppresses indigenous and poor > people long after Mexico declared its independence from Spain in the > early nineteenth century. In this interpretation, the Mexican state > has developed an ideological justification under the umbrella of a > "revolutionary" discourse to deflect blame and hide exploitation of > the indigenous population. > > _Torn from the World_ is organized thematically and chronologically. > It discusses the detention and brutal torture of Tzompaxtle, a Nahua > indigenous, first from the point of view of the reporters covering > the reemergence of the EPR, and then introduces the testimony of > Tzompaxtle himself, with special attention to the problems that > pertain to the description of torture and violence. This is > accompanied by a reflection about how best to assess the truth of > testimony of an "impossible" escape and the role of the journalist in > writing about violence. Gliber turns to the ambiguous relationship > between human rights activists and the guerrilla groups when facing a > state involved in human rights violations. Finally, Gliber tries to > recover the point of view of Tzompaxtle's wife through a lengthy > interview conducted by Tzompaxtle. As Gliber recognizes in the > introduction, the book aspires to "disarm strategies of > delegitimization and re-victimization by showing how discrete > mistakes in memory do not challenge or undermine the truth of > traumatic memories, and what is more, often the 'mistakes' of memory > reveal truths of a different order" (p. 19). > > Gliber struggles with some of the common problems faced by any > researcher interested in human rights violations and political > violence in contemporary Mexico, especially the issue of sources. The > author relies mostly on testimonies from journalists, activists, and > guerrillas to build his narrative. He also quotes some of the written > and oral testimonies provided by Tzompaxtle to the Mexican press > after his escape. He makes some use of criminal records and human > rights complaints, but he mostly considers them in passing when he > narrates the detention of Tzompaxtle's brothers in 2006. On the other > hand, the interview of Tzompaxtle's wife, "Nube" (Cloud), provides a > window into the life and ideas of a working-class woman whose husband > has been detained by the Mexican state security forces. However, > Gliber's treatment of other participants in the case--for example, > female human rights activists--is less charitable. He questions the > activist behind the human rights complaint related to the Tzompaxtle > case and considers her doubts about Tzompaxtle's identity a > reflection of racism. Gliber's emphasis on the persistence of > indigenous heritage in contemporary Mexico and the paradox of Mexican > racism alongside a pro-indigenous public discourse is only thinly > related to the activist's doubts. Ultimately, readers are left to > their own interpretations of the truth. > > The break with other studies of Mexican state violence is starker > when considering Gliber's use of theoretical developments from > postcolonial and decolonial studies. The theoretical approach of the > book wavers between Gliber's recognition of class-based inequalities > (the "objective conditions" to armed struggle in the Guevarista > discourse of the 1960s) and other types of oppression. Considering > twentieth-century developments in Mexico, the introduction of > postcolonial/subaltern studies into the Mexican context is > problematic. As Florencia Mallon has previously shown, that approach > does not consider how the postrevolutionary regime in Mexico > sustained itself with more than just repression and it simplifies the > realities of resistance and cooperation with the state.[1] > > It is hard to find Gliber's voice in large portions of the book, but > his position appears when he engages in a theoretical discussion > about the role of the journalist. The pro-militant stance of Gliber > may deceive an unprepared reader who ignores some of his previous > work on contemporary violence in Mexico. At first, _Torn from the > World_ seems another romantic portrayal of the armed resistance of an > indigenous guerrilla against a colonial state in Latin America. A > closer look reveals in-depth research combined with a savvy reading > of the postcolonial critique of the modernizing project in Latin > America and the unequal societies it has produced. The problem with > Gliber's text is not that it ignores the violence of the state > against social movements and the civilian population in Mexico's > countryside or that it fails to recognize the mechanisms of > collaboration with the state. The book fails to reference other, > non-guerrilla opposition forces that suffered state repression during > the same period. Gliber only mentions the 1995 Aguas Blancas massacre > as context for the public emergence of the EPR, but he leaves readers > without enough context to understand the long history of Guerrero's > guerrillas and electoral conflicts. The reader unfamiliar with the > political context in Mexico during the 1990s may end up thinking that > Guerrero's case has a greater national significance than is granted > in other narratives of the period. Gliber's analysis works by > ignoring the role of the masses who participated in the state > project. > > Gliber underscores the origins of the EPR guerrillas in the poverty, > exclusion, racism, and authoritarianism experienced by subjects like > Andres Tzompaxtle, but downplays these connections with other > guerrilla movements, ideologies, and national political events. He > affirms that Tzompaxtle "did not base [his] decisions on books or > films, the histories of Che or Ho Chi Minh, the images of the piled > bodies in Tlatelolco, or the texts or theories of long-dead Germans > or Russians" (pp. 71-72). This is a bold argument considering the > role of ideological education among left-wing guerrillas such as the > EPR and its connections with a rural intellectual milieu of > elementary school teachers and high school students. Gliber's > emphasis on objective conditions ignores a long history of subaltern > political education and the appropriation of Marxist and nationalist > revolutionary discourses by peasant communities. He cites Mexico's > dirty war historiography thoroughly, but the influence of > postcolonial discourse on his analysis precludes other approaches to > explain state counterinsurgency tactics. Perhaps the solution resides > in reading this book along with some of the previous books by Gliber, > where he provides useful context about Guerrero's dialectics of > repression and resistance. > > _Torn from the World_ rebuts doubts about Tzompaxtle as a real > escapee from state prison and rejects accusations of treason toward > Tzompaxtle, even though other guerrilla leaders, human rights > advocates, and reporters repeatedly questioned Tzompaxtle's story. > This situation points to an unexplored subject, the infiltration of > the guerrillas and social groups in Mexico. Despite many suspicions, > the issue remains taboo, and access to materials in Mexico's National > Archives restricted. Perhaps the scope of this infiltration will > become known with the anticipated opening of the Secret Service > archives. > > Memories of the 1970s counterinsurgent repression help contextualize > the contemporary War on Drugs (2006-18) and the history of social > movements and electoral politics in Mexico since the late 1980s. > Gliber's book expands our knowledge of the resistance to the > authoritarian regime prevalent in twentieth-century Mexico. Gliber > has documented the disappearance of civilians as a strategy of terror > based on the heritage of the 1970s dirty war against guerrilla > groups. _Torn from the World_ remains a compelling call to action and > an indispensable source for understanding the persistent use of > torture against dissidents and political prisoners in Mexico. > > Note > > [1]. See Florencia E Mallon, _Peasant and Nation: The Making of > Postcolonial Mexico and Peru _(Berkeley: University of California > Press, 1995). For a similar approach focused on recent developments, > see Randall Sheppard, _A Persistent Revolution: History, Nationalism, > and Politics in Mexico since 1968 _(Albuquerque: University of New > Mexico Press, 2016). > > Citation: Jorge Puma. Review of Gibler, John, _Torn from the World: A > Guerrilla's Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico_. H-Socialisms, > H-Net Reviews. June, 2019. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53462 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
