Between criminality and patriotism. The Icaiché Maya and their links to legitimate and illegitimate power

Abstract

This article examines the history of the Icaiché Maya and their context in southeastern Yucatan around the middle of the nineteenth century. I will argue the inadequacy of a model of a political and economic “center” that dominated an impoverished “periphery.” As a group of Mayan rebels that achieved an astounding level of power by becoming anti-rebel paramilitaries at both the service and expense of the governments of Merida, Campeche, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico, the Icaichés represent the apparent inversion of the center versus the periphery model of dominance. Their case also emphasizes the possibility that it could have been precisely the attempt at applying an ideal, fantastical model of control of the center over the periphery that enabled border regions to gain their power at the expense of a weakened center’s legitimacy, by placing a high demand on the two regions’ constant interaction and mutual exchange of favors. In this sense, the article also suggests that the political power of the long-idealized “nation-state” may not have depended on the aspired uniformity and integrity of a region, but rather on the constant tension present on its borders.