Paper short abstract:

In Latin America, and in many other parts of the world, there exists an enormous gab between the state and the communities with their citizens.

Paper long abstract:

In Latin America, and in many other parts of the world, there exists an enormous gab between the state and the communities with their citizens. Constitutional law, with its emphasis on individual rights and obligations, dominates and is in permanent conflict with traditional community law, which has a much more collectivistic character. In many parts of the world traditional citizens, peasants and Indians, have been forced to organize to defend themselves against the state, which promised in its constitution to respect and defend the rights of the citizens. In the paper there organizations of this type will be presented: the "policía comunitaria" in Guerrero in Southern Mexico, the "guardia tribal" of the Nasa and Guambiano Indians in Southern Colombia, and the "ronda campesina" in Peru.