Who is Who in Mano Dura? Rethinking the Actor/Audience Nexus in the Securitization of Organised Crime in Contemporary Guatemala

Abstract

The manifestation of mano dura\in contemporary Guatemala demonstrates that the actor-audience nexus, as envisioned by the Copenhagen School of security studies, is too simplistic. In this thesis, traditional concepts of audience and securitizing actors are re-conceptualized to demonstrate that the relationship between actor and audience is not one-way but an a dynamic interplay in which dominant securitizing actors are subjected to the influence of other securitizing actors- and vice versa.