As part of its efforts to eliminate violence in all of its forms, the Bajo Lempa Coordinating Committee has spearheaded a number of initiatives designed to promote community dialogue and local development. The Committee—in conjunction with its legal arm, the Mangrove Association—pursues the diversification of agricultural production, seeks new markets for local goods and strengthens community organizing as part of its 1998 declaration of a “local peace zone” in southern El Salvador’s Bajo Lempa region. As part of these goals, the Committee organizes “dialogue and reflection circles” in hopes of reducing community tension and violent crime. According to Estela Hernández, who coordinates “circles” in the Usulután department, peace is not simply the absence of war. And violence, by extension, is not only perpetrated with weapons. “Violence,” explains Hernández, “is anything that prevents you from living with dignity.”
Although the civil war ended 12 years ago, both Mangrove Association Executive Director Arístides Valencia and Hernández assert that the residents of Bajo Lempa still do not live in peace. Valencia cites a reduction in murders, robberies and domestic violence, but maintains that poor access to education and healthcare, insufficient housing and a consistently insecure food supply create an environment that continually gives rise to violent crime. For Hernández, the relationship between living conditions and violence is even more direct: “It is violence when we don’t have access to education, when we can’t go to the clinic and get medicine.”
The circles that Hernández coordinates contribute to building sustainable peace by reducing tension and conflict among community members, which in turn facilitates communication and organization. A team of nine facilitators, including Hernández, has been working in the region since 2002. Each facilitator is responsible for several circles within a defined geographic area known as a grupo local (local group).
The Bajo Lempa town of La Canoita began holding circles two years ago. Resident Cornelio Rubio describes how, at that time, “People fought over nothing, they gossiped over nothing.” Before attending the circles, Rubio admits that he was ready to begin robbing his neighbors to feed his eight children. He now claims that through minimizing conflict, the residents of El Canoita have developed a much stronger sense of community: “If I am the only one eating, I am not doing well, because my neighbor is not doing well.”
The circles challenge traditional definitions of peace through the notion of a “peace zone” and by acknowledging the violent implications of poor living conditions. In this way, participants expand their own perspectives on peace, as well as the components necessary for its construction. “How can one live in peace, if one doesn’t have a place to eat or sleep?,” asks Rubio. The circles also foster individual and community self-determination. The inculcation of these values lies at the foundation of the Committee’s philosophy on local, sustainable development. The Committee emphasizes this consciousness to such a degree that it identifies charity as one of the greatest impediments to its work. “Charity resolves a problem for you without committing you to anything or making you responsible for anything,” says Valencia in reference to blank donations or simply “dropping” projects on a community.
Circle facilitator Senaira Velásquez Morales describes how when she first invited a group of delinquent youth in the town of Nuevo Amanecer to begin meeting with her, they asked what she had brought for them. They told her that they only turned to delinquency because they didn’t have any work or opportunities, and they were hoping that she had come to offer those very things. “I told them that right now, I’m not here to offer you a project or anything. I am here to offer you an educational experience, through which you can learn how to generate something that you want for your life,” says Velásquez. The young men, who had been stealing farm animals and food from their neighbors and using the money to buy alcohol and drugs, accepted her invitation. Some have dedicated themselves to making artisanal goods. Most have left delinquency behind.
In collaboration with the Committee, the residents of La Canoita are now organizing themselves and working with agricultural diversification projects. They, along with the youth from Nuevo Amanecer, are also curbing violence and attempting to create a peace much more comprehensive than that characterized simply by the absense of war.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Plimpton coordinates the Human Rights Program and writes the monthly bulletin at the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS) in San Salvador.
