Official Title:
La Coordinadora de Comunidades de Bajo Lempa y la Bahia de Jiquilisco. The organisation prefers to use "la Coordinadora" as both their English and Spanish name.
Departamento:
Usulután. "Usulután" is the indigenous word for "city of the ocelots."
Region:
Located on the south-eastern region of El Salvador in the Lenca region. (The Lenca people are indigenous people of southwestern Honduras and eastern El Salvador).
Population:
c57,400
Location:
In the south east region of El Salvador, close to the Pacific Ocean
Date of establishment:
La Coordinadora was established on 1996. It was originally formed to work on the flooding from the Lempa River on the south coast of El Salvador. In just 3 years, la Coordinadora grew from 13 communities to 86 and founded an NGO (Mangrove Association) to professionalize its efforts at generating funding, starting development projects, and empowering self-sufficiency for its constituents and their communities. Each community has a leader that helps govern the Mangrove Association. Both la Coordinadora and the Mangrove Association aim to work in the areas of community organization, disaster response and prevention, participatory processes, environmentally friendly development, and CPP (Culture of Peace Program).
Traditional political affiliation:
Trigger event[s]:
Usualan was one of the most affected departments during the civil war and was also deeply affected by the 2001 Earthquake and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
Persons/organizations involved in establishment:
This zone of peace has had a lot of supporters over time from groups to individuals. Father Jose “Chencho” Alas, a Salvadoran priest has taken a huge role on the zones of peace movement in El Salvador. He has worked on very many different missions and initiatives, including working with rival gangs to develop truces and end violence.
The Texas based "Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America" (now called Eco-Viva) and other international NGOs have worked with La Coordinadora to help make their goals a reality.
Leadership:
This initiative did not start off with any help from the government, from educated elite, or foreign experts. The strengths and efforts of la Coordinadora came from their own local people and culture. Each community that became involved origibnally held an assembly and voted to join la Coordinadora and elected a representative. However, as the number of communities imnvolved grew, it was decided to establish a formal, nongovernmental organization.
Supporters:
Dozens of communities joined to overcome damages from natural disasters and to promote self-sufficiency as a response to poverty and governmental inaction. Also, the majority of the people in the communities have been very collaborative and have supported the Zone of Peace movement.
Declared objectives.
The main objectives were to prevent damages of natural disasters and to promote self-sufficiency in response to widespread poverty. As other communities started to join, peace and democracy were included in their objectives and mission. La Coordinadora aims to work in the areas of community organization, disaster response and prevention, participatory processes, environmentally friendly development, and CPP (Culture of Peace Program).
Functional committees:
The Culture of Peace Committee works with youth and other community members in the zone to reduce violence and provide viable alternatives for gang members. The Committee helps former gang members to get back on their feet, assisting with tattoo removals so that they would not be stigmatised or discriminated.
The Mangrove Association was crucial during the reconstruction after Hurricane Mitch, which left Usulután in grave conditions. with many citizens without a home, food, or water.
Significant events:
La Coordinadora has been really helpful in disaster response and prevention. For example, they took effective action in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch and were able successfully to evacuate everyone in zones of danger, preventing many deaths. In 2001, El Salvador was rocked with many earthquakes and La Coordinatora offered shelter, food, and water for those in need. As part of the disaster-prevention program, la Coordinadora makes sure to build houses that can withstand natural disasters.
The organisation has worked to improve the conditions of poverty and violence in the region. Their projects have three major themes: credit and grants, education and training, and transport and marketing. La Coordinadora has helped farming families, given loans to more than two hundred people, and helped people get back to their feet after Hurricane Mitch.
Also, Chencho and others in the organization have worked hard to come up with a truce between warring gangs. They even had a meeting between the two most dangerous and notorious gangs: Mara Salvatrucha and Gang 18. Unfortumately, things did not go as planned when the MS13 gang leader was unexpectedly arrested by the state security forces.
Further comments:
The local Zone of Peace (LZP) in Usulatan was established as part of the developmental activities of La Coordinadora, which was originally created specifically to address economic and social development issues, but had to deal with the criminal violence,which was disrupting the path towards a better economy.
Dr. Jose Alas, who was assisted by Dr. Ramon Lopez-Reyes, led the initiative to create of the LZP. With Lopez-Reyes’ experience, they knew that to set up a successful Zone of Peace, which needed to be instituted from the grassroots up, rather from the governmental or top level down. The LZP was defined as "a territory occupied by a community seeking to define its own goals and aspirations, to live peacefully using the LZP to create a foundation for the free and full expression of economic, social, and cultural rights and civil and political rights".
The Culture of Peace (CPP) has been an essential cornerstone of both the general activities of the LZP and of democracy promotion. CPP is a transforming influence that alters a culture that promotes and rewards violence to one that values and practices peace. CPP is focused on educating for peace, uses methods for transforming conflicts, and creates new organizations for grassroots participation for peace. CPP’s goals are peace, democracy, and self-sufficiency.
The training program for CPP (developed by Dr.Lopez-Reyes, Dr. Mark Chupp, Dr. Mario Mejia and others) emphasizes the uncovering and use of local knowledge to create positive change and sustainable peace building. Visiting trainers worked to obtain peaceful qualities and activities from each of the communities participating in the project. The components of the program include knowledge and education for peace, methods of conflict transformation, methods of organizing and creating participation, and commitment to a positive approach to social change and building peace.
CPP continued to grow throughout 2002 and 2003, expanding to twelve communities and this was used to demonstarte to people how to speak out about their feelings and thoughts about war and violence. CPP has also been part of the creation of an initiative called the "Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace", also known as the "Meso-American Peace Project". The Project is designed to bring together different cultures from the region and to create a force oforpeace building based upon the values for peace inherent in local traditions, cultures, and religions.
To achieve a non-violent environment in El Salvador, there needs to be economic development and social justice; both must happen and develop. To end the culture of violence, people and communities must empower themselves rather than wait for someone else to do the work. To achieve a Zone of Peace, everyone must work together, be well informed and know about their rights because it is important to know what they can and cannot do. [AM]
Further readings:
Chupp, Mark "Creating a Culture of Peace in Post-War El Salvander" in Positive Approaches in Peacebuilding; A Resources for Inovators" Cynthis.Sampson et al [editors] [Washington DC; Pact Publications; 2003]
Hancock, Landon E. "El Salvador's Post-Conflict Peace Zone" in L.E.Hancock & Christopher Mitchell [eds] Zones of Peace [Bloomfield, CT; Kumarian Press; 2007]
Lopez-Reyes, Ramon "Establishing Salvador's Zone of Peace" Peace Review 9 920 1997 pp.225-231.
For more information on Eco-Viva (previously known as "The Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America" - FSSCA) visit its webpage: http://www.eco-viva.org/
picture taken from
(last edited: 2013)