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Whose Norms and Whose Peace? A Critical Analysis of Counterprotests Against an Indigenous-Led Mobilization in Ecuador

Abstract:

On June 2022, there was a massive mobilization demanding policy reforms in Ecuador led by the local Indigenous movement. This article focuses on counterprotests that called for peace, which emerged as a response to such event. Guided by critical psychology, the author analyzed 12 mainstream media sources published online. Counterprotesters’ calls for peace reproduced violent power asymmetries, mainly associated with social class and racialized ethnicities. Media content framed antigovernment protesters as violent threats and counter protesters as peaceful citizens. Counterprotesters embodied conservative norms and liberal peace, echoing the official discourse of elite norm communities governing the state, and their ideological supporters. Such liberal peace relied on norms linked with state laws: to avoid convulsing disruption, to dialogue, and to construct. Perceived threats to such norms were understood as violence by counterprotesters: disruption, radicalization, and destruction. Calls for liberal peace embodied contradictions shaped by power dynamics: supported by the Government, counterprotesters broke certain legal norms with impunity; there was a selective celebration of destruction; and there was a paradox of dialogue as coercive imposition. Findings are discussed in the context of international calls to advance postliberal peace processes.