¿Quién por nosotros? Autorità, conflitti e governance nella Regione Ixil del Guatemala

This dissertation examines the reconstitution of the Maya Ixil ancestral authorities in the region of Nebaj, Guatemala, as a privileged site for observing the transformations in the relations between Indigenous communities, the state, and law in contemporary Guatemala. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2024, it combines historical analysis, participant observation, and the study of legal and administrative processes. The “ancestral” authority is not approached as a survival of traditional forms but as an institution in constant re-elaboration, whose political meaning emerges through everyday practices of governance, conflict mediation, and territorial defense. The Alcaldías Indígenas and Consejos de Principales operate within a plural legal regime in which the categories of costumbre and state law intersect and continuously redefine one another. The analysis reconstructs the long-term relations between the state, land, and community, showing how the history of the municipal ejido of Nebaj provides a key lens for understanding transformations in local authority from the liberal period to the postwar present. Contemporary ethnography demonstrates that the reorganization of Indigenous authorities cannot be reduced to a defensive reaction against extractive policies but constitutes a process of redefinition of political legitimacy. The examination of recent conflicts — from the 2022 attack on the Alcaldía Indígena of Nebaj to the 2023 national mobilizations — reveals the persistence of counterinsurgent logics and the capacity of Indigenous authorities to transform crisis into a field of political action. Within this context, women’s protagonism reworks the canons of costumbre and redefines the very modalities of ancestral authority, introducing new forms of moral and political legitimacy. The dissertation concludes with a reflection on authority as a practice of service and collective responsibility. The ethnography shows how the system of cargos constitutes an ethical and relational order in continuous transformation, capable of redefining — within the structural inequalities that characterize contemporary Guatemala — the boundaries between community autonomy, political sovereignty, and territorial justice.