El «terruqueo» como tecnología de poder en la producción psicopolítica de la exclusión en el Perú contemporáneo

Abstract

This article analyzes the phenomenon of terruqueo in contemporary Peru, proposing its understanding as a technology of power rather than merely as a discursive strategy. In a context of growing political polarization and social conflict, terruqueo has become a recurrent practice that delegitimizes actors and constrains public debate. Drawing on a theoretical approach that articulates contributions from Foucault, Byung-Chul Han, and Schmitt, the article argues that terruqueo operates as a dispositif that classifies, hierarchizes, and regulates political participation through the production of subjectivities and the mobilization of affects, particularly fear and suspicion. It further examines its role in the construction of the internal enemy and in the legitimization of a social order that naturalizes exclusion and neutralizes dissent. The analysis demonstrates that its effects are not limited to the discursive plane but extend to the configuration of psychic and social life, fostering dynamics of self-censorship, social fragmentation, and the normalization of stigma. The article concludes that a critical reading of the phenomenon requires problematizing its conditions of production and its structural effects on Peruvian society.