ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociological Theory
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1602160
This article is part of the Research TopicUnderstanding Violence: New Data and TheoryView all articles
Popular Justice and Territorial Resistance in the Peruvian Andes: The Case of Huanta
Provisionally accepted
Fernando Gari Huayhua Lévano1*
Rubén Ñaupari Molina1
Alex Quispe Quispe2Ivet Danitza Coronado Illanes1Fernando Félix Huayhua Aguirre1Amilcar Tacuri Gamboa3Jhon Ivan Ramos Malpica1- 1National Autonomous University of Huanta, Huanta, Peru
- 2National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco, Cusco, Peru
- 3San Cristóbal of Huamanga University, Ayacucho, Peru
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Huanta, known as "The Emerald of the Andes," is a historical epicenter of radical mobilization in southern Peru, where resistance has emerged against a state perceived as absent and repressive. This study aims to analyze the radicalization of protest through three key events: the 1969 Rebellion opposing educational reforms under Velasco Alvarado's regime; the burning of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office in 2022 as an act of popular justice; and the 2024 indefinite strike in the Razuhuillca watershed against mining expansion. Using a qualitative approach based on indepth interviews, documentary analysis, and thematic coding, this research identifies three dimensions: historical memory of resistance, crisis of state legitimacy, and communal territorial defense. Drawing upon theories of structural, symbolic, necropolitical, and territorial violence, the study explores how multiple forms of exclusion intersect to produce radicalized collective action. The findings reveal that radicalization in Huanta is rooted in intergenerational memory, community cohesion, and self-governance, rather than spontaneous impulses. This suggests that plebeian protest is not an anomaly but a structural response to exclusion and state violence, offering insights into broader dynamics of resistance and community governance in the Peruvian Andes.
Keywords: protest radicalization, popular justice, socio-environmental conflict, historical memory, Self-governance, plebeian mobilization, Huanta, Peruvian Andes
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 05 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huayhua Lévano, Ñaupari Molina, Quispe Quispe, Coronado Illanes, Huayhua Aguirre, Tacuri Gamboa and Ramos Malpica. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fernando Gari Huayhua Lévano, National Autonomous University of Huanta, Huanta, Peru
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