Torture: New Methods and Meanings

"Torture: New Methods and Meanings": This essay analyzes the functions of the disappearance and torture of people under the global reorganization of power. It indicates how flexibilization of the law opens the door to the legalization of these practices. It traces the disappearance of people and the unrestricted application of torture to a vast legal-illegal repressive network which seeks to reduce the restrictions of the law while at the same time transgressing it. This represents a new form of articulation between the State of Law and the State of Exception. However, despite the secrecy that enshrouds this illegal dimension of repression and punishment, there exists the material witness of its survivors—from Guantánamo and other clandestine disappearance and detention centers—discussed throughout the text. This allows for an approximate outline of the new form of repression and, from there, to trace certain preliminary features of global power and its current transformation.