Symbolic mestizo border and criminalization of the indigenous body in Otavalo (Ecuador 2025): Structural racism and Intercultural conflict

Abstract

This article analyzes the social conflict that took place in Otavalo (Ecuador) in 2025 and proposes the Theory of the Mestizo Symbolic Frontier (TFSM by its Spanish acronym) as an interpretive framework to understand how the criminalization of the Indigenous body operates in contexts of protest. The TFSM argues that mestizaje, rather than functioning as a space of harmonious integration, acts as a symbolic frontier that defines who is recognized as a legitimate citizen and who can be treated as a threat. Drawing on a critical qualitative approach, the study examines state discourse, media coverage, community testimonies, and human rights reports to show how state repression is justified through the construction of the mobilized Indigenous subject as a disruptor of public order. The analysis demonstrates that the Indigenous body is not only the object of police control, but a disputed political territory, and that urban mestizo identity operates as a mechanism of symbolic legitimation of violence, normalizing ethnic exclusion in the name of “progress” and “security.” The article argues that this dynamic is not an isolated event, but rather an expression of an ongoing colonial structure in contemporary Ecuador, with parallels in other Latin American settings. It concludes that decolonizing interculturality requires dismantling the mestizo symbolic frontier that converts Indigenous difference into suspicion and enables its repression.