Truth processes and decolonial transformation: a comparative view of Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Colombia

Abstract

This article explores periods of transformative politics in Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Colombia – states that have undergone processes of truth involving Indigenous peoples and have opted for multicultural neoliberal politics. We revisit the idea of decolonial transformation as an ongoing, unfinished process, while refining a framework of four factors that facilitate decoloniality. These factors include: (1) a process of truth or peace; (2) Indigenous leadership with a commitment to community participation; (3) the transfer of administrative autonomy over Indigenous governance and service provision; and (4) redistributive measures that favour Indigenous peoples. This framework is analysed and refined by bringing critiques of reconciliation politics from Indigenous resurgence scholars and decoloniality theories from Latin America into dialogue, and then analysing the above-mentioned Latin American case studies. We argue that processes of truth can open space for decoloniality, but only in circumstances where the strength of the three other factors contributes to the transcendence of neoliberal recognition politics.

Keywords:

• Decoloniality
• politics of recognition
• processes of truth
• neoliberal multiculturalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Indigenous peoples in Canada comprise First Nations, Inuits, and Métis, which in 2021 represented 5% of the Canadian population; and there are more than 600 First Nations in Canada (Statistics Canada 2022). Based on Niigaaniin’s documentation, the seven First Nation communities represented by the NSTC have approximately a population of 13,600 members, of which some 4,700 live on-reserve.

2 The Indian Act (1876) is a federal piece of legislation that, with amendments, remains valid. It regulates and restricts different aspects of Indigenous lives, including defining Indian status, band council governance, and Indian reserves (Lightfoot 2016, 171).

3 Convention 169, nevertheless, recognizes Indigenous peoples territory as the total environment that they occupy or use, and mandates that governments should respect Indigenous peoples’ relationship with their territory (Convention 169, article 13).

4 As per Decree 1088 of 1993, an Indigenous cabildo is a public entity comprising an Indigenous community that has its own assets, administrative autonomy, and sociopolitical organization, whose objectives are economic, social, and cultural development.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant No. 435-2019-0865.

Notes on contributors

Carola Ramos-Cortez

Carola Ramos-Cortez is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University in Canada. Her work investigates social and economic inequality through the lenses of state-society and human-environment relationships. Her research draws from frameworks in political geography, human rights, and decolonial and feminist theories. She received her PhD in Geography from Queen’s University. In her dissertation, she investigated processes of construction of Indigenous territorial and economic autonomy, focussing on the limits and possibilities of emancipatory transformation for Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon.

Timothy MacNeill

Timothy MacNeill is Senior Teaching Professor of Political Science and Director of Sustainability Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. His research occurs where culture and equity interact with ideas of sustainable development. Recent work has examined how afro-descendent and Indigenous communities in the Global South are impacted by libertarian-utopian crypto-cities, large-scale tourism projects, and mining of minerals used in computing and batteries. He has also recently studied the relationship between Indigenous culture and nature relatedness and the potential of digital technologies in Indigenous cultural revitalisation. Dr. MacNeill has ongoing projects studying the conditions for decoloniality, the ways in which culture and ethnic diversity impact cooperation for collective goods provision and environmental protection, and how Universal Basic Income policies can be made environmentally sustainable.