Peasants in the War. Or How People Begin to Toughen Up

Studies on the decade of violence have paid little attention to the meaning and structure of the civil defense committees, better known as "montucos." In most cases, the view of these committees has been linked to the simple mechanical equation armed forces = patrols, undervaluing the level of reasoning and the capacity to make independent decisions by these rural sectors, seen as objects but not as political subjects. It is not surprising, then, that the existing image of them is limited to an attitude of passivity or, at best, to the role of mere victims being led along, as if the patrols responded only to the strategic manipulations of the military command. This assessment is present in almost all texts that analyze the problem, coinciding, incidentally, with the characterization granted to them by the Sendero leadership when it labels the patrols as "mesnadas." Our purpose is to partially correct this misunderstanding.