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Seized by the Spirit 233

the body of the believers and, through them, the larger world that has tem-
porarily become detached from the deity. Through aggressive processes of
recentralization, in both intimately related cases it is all a matter of bring-
ing a stranded world back to the One as its single originating source and
foundation, regardless of whether such a One is called the Holy Ghost or
Bolívar with Chávez parading as mouthpiece.

A History of Violence

As for the world that such a morphing One so jealously and, ultimately, I
believe, hopelessly reclaims, constantly “negating itself . . . either . . . by
limitlessly multiplying itself, or . . . by turning itself into nothing” (Nancy
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2004, 110), let me return to the beginning to give a sense of just how
ravaged it is—that is, to the double set of doors of the Yaracuy building,
which I repeatedly ran up against during the first few days of fieldwork
before being allowed inside. Passing through these doors into the building
is not in any way akin to entering some reclusive “inside”; rather than any
hidden depths, what one meets “inside” is the most unflinching “outside.”
Indeed, whatever lies “inside,” from broken elevator in the lobby to the
stairs leading through the mezzanine and a series of floors all the way up
to the “penthouse,” bears the unmistakable traces of the “outside” reality
that one presumably leaves behind, in the streets, when entering the
building.
Simply climbing the main stairs of the building all the way up to the
“penthouse” suffices to confirm what I say. Everywhere the heavily locked
doors of the apartments, often secured with thick chains or reinforced with
heavy metal planks, bear testimony to how fragile the boundaries between
“inside” and “outside” are within the building. The same can be said of the
groups of apartments barricaded behind some impromptu common gate
that blocks the corridor and that one must necessarily trespass before
reaching any one of them. All of this mutely yet eloquently speaks to a
recent history of violence, of forced entries, sieges, and seizures, and to the

corresponding countermeasures undertaken to set the balance straight.
Indeed, as I eventually found out, during the months immediately pre-
ceding my arrival, a true reign of terror had taken hold of the building,
leading to several violent deaths and the temporary forceful eviction of the
squatters by the police. It all had to do with warfare between rival squatter
bands, one of which forced itself into the building armed with guns,
machine guns, and other deadly weapons only minutes after Hermana
10
Juana and her largely evangelical following had seized the place. Such