Unprecedented crime rates have made Guatemala City one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Following a peace process that ended Central America s longest and bloodiest civil war and impelled the transition from a state-centric economy to the global free market, Guatemala s neoliberal moment is now strikingly evident in the practices and politics of security. Postwar violence has not prompted public debates about the conditions that permit transnational gangs, drug cartels, and organized crime to thrive. Instead, the dominant reaction to crime has been the cultural promulgation of fear...