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Through a feminist institutional ethnographic-oriented lens, this paper examines how gender and sexual violence came into the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (PTRC) (2001-2003) scope of visibility and how the temporally bound institution addressed these issues. This analysis utilizes the inclusion of gender and sexual violence as entry points for a deeper reflection on the institutional and discursive limits inherent within the work of the PTRC, which are rooted in set of liberal values that inform both international law and nation building. The paper garners a feminist critical perspective on the application of gender and sexual violence in an effort to both map problematic circuits to avoid and to help cut paths towards the transformation of state and society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission's PTRC (2001-2003) Thematic Public Hearing on Political Violence and Crimes Against Women, analyzing both the representations of women and the disruptive moments that occurred in this hearing. Through a bricolage of narrative form including vignette, testimony, interpretive analysis, and selections from interviews, this paper explores the cacophony of voices and parallel realities present within the work of the PTRC. An examination of the public hearings, demonstrates how certain figures, such as virgin victim and righteous mother/community leader, are privileged through a human rights framework, overlaid upon the Peruvian national discourse. This examination also illustrates how others figures, such as imprisoned subversive women, are denied the possibility of recognition. This paper underscores the way in which dominant representations of women in the PTRC's national historical narrative impose limitations on a transition to democracy due to underlying exclusionary logics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although not known for interstate conflict, Latin American nations do go to war. The 1995 war between Ecuador and Peru, countries considered to be in the US sphere of influence during the Cold War, provides an opportunity to examine possible domestic reasons for war. Why did a border dispute that festered for half a century suddenly become hot, particularly in the post-Cold War period with the US the clear regional and global hegemon? In this paper, I examine possible explanations, including whether the war was simply accidental to the attempt by leaders to use the conflict to garner political support--the rally round the flag effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]