Abstract

VASQUEZ LEZAMA, Paula. The Torture of Franklin Brito or the Political Significance of a Somatic Duel. Trace (Méx. DF) [online]. 2017, n.72, pp.34-55. ISSN 2007-2392.  https://doi.org/10.22134/trace.72.2017.97.

Venezuelan farmer, Franklin Brito, died in confinement in a private room of the Military Hospital of Caracas’ psychiatric unit on August 30, 2010, after having carried out six hunger strikes and amputated a finger throughout successive protests that began in 2005. This paper proposes the study of the Brito case as a form of intelligibility of a social context and a political process marked by different levels of violence. This case is an accessible singularity to observation that arises problems and questions about the use of the body in protest. The body is the place of a voice that demands, questions, protests and challenges power. We show how his torture and death embody a conflict marked by extreme emotions that signify the Bolivarian Revolution of President Hugo Chávez. Franklin Brito is a disruptive body that appears dramatically in the political space that is acquiring different meanings.

Keywords : hunger strike; self-mutilation; body; Bolivarian revolution; Venezuela.

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