Week 2 - 25 years of Violent Peace
This week I dove head first into my research regarding the situation in El Salvador. As I worked through my research, I realized how fortunate I am to be able to contribute towards a project aimed at bettering the lives of individuals and creating positive systematic change.
This week my research focused on learning more about the history of violence in El Salvador and examining the ways in which the country has attempted to address the issue in the past. El Salvador has been stricken with violence for over 30 years, beginning with a civil war that has proceeded with about 25 years of violent peace. It has long been considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to its consistently high homicide rates. A significant contribution to these killings is the persistent issue of gangs and gang violence. Over the years efforts have been made to lower these rates, and bring about change to the country’s safety however, the country’s solutions of truces with gangs and repression have proven to be ineffective.
The newest government party has decided to address the issue through the declaration of a state of emergency, which has suspended El Salvadoran’s basics rights, including free speech and protest rights. This approach mimics the strategies undertaken by previous governments; strategies which are effective in the short-term but continuously fall apart in the long-term. Although crime rates have gone down since the enactment of this state of emergency, the country now faces issues of mass incarceration with a lot of the individuals incarcerated being innocent people.
This project has brought to my attention the sheer difficulty of affecting change in a country that is plagued with gang violence. It seems clear that in order to create long-lasting change governments need to establish permanent and reliable structures as well as policies.