Sovereignty and the Denial of Human Life. A Socio-Political Analysis of Risk Control

Contemporary sovereignty is updated within the field of governmentality, and exercises its power in an extralegal and extrahuman form on certain populations considered dangerous for social security. These practices lead to unlivable lives not only because they are outside the law, but also, and for the same logical reasons, because they are outside the frameworks that define what is human. Guantanamo constitutes the exemplary paradigm of the denial of the legal and ontological status of prisoners whose lives are suspended indefinitely. Among the conclusions drawn from this reflection is that the excess of sovereign power threatens the human life of those sectors considered to be dangerous, as well as community life which becomes reduced to risk, enmity and rejection.