Abstract

BOUTRON, Camille. The “terrorist women”, the “militia woman” and “women police”: women’s implications in Peru’s armed violence. CONfines relacion. internaci. ciencia política [online]. 2023, vol.19, n.37, pp.102-116.  Epub May 03, 2024. ISSN 1870-3569.  https://doi.org/10.46530/cf.vi37/cnfns.n37.p102-116.

In Peru, women have historically participated in the violence associated with the armed conflict between 1980 and 2000. Through a meticulous examination of the role women have played in this context and the perception that has been forged around them, this article explores three profiles that coexist in the field of this conflict: the policewoman, the militia woman, and the (female) terrorist.

Although all three profiles commit some form of transgression against gender-associated expectations, policewomen-who exercise violence legitimized as expressions of the State-do not lose their feminine character in the collective imagination, as their bodies and aesthetics still conform to the parameters of what is expected of them. In the case of militants of the radical movements Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, they engage in a transgressive violence that rebounds on them as a kind of “counterblow.” Finally, while women who participated in the Committees of Self-Defense have been historically ignored, their male counterparts have carved out a space among the pantheon of the “heroes of the nation”.

Keywords : Committees of Self-Defense; Peru; armed violence; women of the National Police of Peru; Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path.

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