Civilian agency in civil war: examples from three village communities during the internal violent conflict in Peru, 1980-1999

During civil wars and violent insurgencies, militant movements as well as state security forces engage with local populations in various ways, seeking to control but also to mobilize them into supporting, assisting, or participating in their violent campaign. Rather than passive targets of violence or objects of mobilization and control, civilians interacting with armed actors are proactive agents using available spaces of manoeuvre to their advantage. Moreover, the “civilian population” is not necessarily non-violent. Local communities, particularly in peripheral areas neglected by or outside the control of the state, often are able to and do use violence in various ways, as vigilante violence to control deviant behaviour, in conflicts with other communities, but also to resist or circumvent domination by armed groups or the state. “Civilians” can even form more stable armed group, which vary in their relationship with insurgents or state security forces, from voluntary alliance and enforced collaboration to more autonomous and independent forms. This paper examines examples from three village communities during the violent internal conflict in Peru 1980-1999, which represent different patterns of local violent agency and relationships between communities and armed actors. It seeks to shows that the social micro-dynamics of political violence are shaped by complex and very dynamic constellations of local relationships, in which the boundary between armed groups and their social environment in local settings is quite fluent and in which “civilians” dispose of considerable (direct and indirect) forms of coercive resources and control. Individuals and groups within village communities thereby emerge as protagonists of the violent conflict who – wherever possible – strategically resist or collaborate, form alliances, and employ the resources at their disposal. At the same time, processes of political violence take place within and transform communal structures, with insurgent movements as well as government forces contributing to their fragmentation and militarization.