Nuestra justicia es la alegría del corazón. Justicias indígenas e interculturales en el sur de México

Abstract

This text presents the results of a long-term research project that was done about the experiences of conflict resolution and Indigenous, intercultural and autonomous justice in Mexico. The main focus is on the analysis of the System of Community Security, Justice and Re-education of the Costa Chica and Montana regions of Guerrero, and of the Zapatista justice process in the Selva Fronteriza Zone of Chiapas. These experiences are made relevant within the national context and are made visible by a situation of widespread violence that is connected to the conflict between State security forces, different groups of organized crime, and extractives companies, over the control of territory, resources and both legal and illegal sectors of the economy. In that context, it is of fundamental importance the research on and dissemination of these experiences take place. Both processes should work from social and cultural contexts that differ from the dominant system with the aim of modifying the structural framework of violence on a local level, in search of a positive transformation of the conflict. Although the responses of the Indigenous and intercultural systems of justice are limited in their powers when faced with new manifestations of violence that characterize the states of Chiapas and Guerrero, they represent viable alternatives to the ruling impunity and corruption of the policing and justice institutions of Mexico.