Three small experiments in conflict transformation

Conflict Transformation for Insecure Cities, is the name of one initiative in Latin America taking up the challenge of violence prevention in three countries and three very different environments. The American Friends Service Committee, AFSC, in Latin America has set its sights on citizen insecurity and conflict transformation in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

It proposes to recover traditional conflict solving practices among young displaced migrants in Peruvian shantytowns, it hopes to reclaim public spaces for leisure for stigmatized young in Mexico, it aims to diminish violence among soccer fans in Colombia, and in all cases, break down stereotypes and allow for community building activities.

“We are trying to work in cities, we are reopening the discussion of the concept of the middle ages that if you move to a city you become a citizen,” said Jorge Laffitte, AFSC regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. It comes at a time when speaking of violence, urban and armed go together.

“74 per cent of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean live in cities today, so if you want to make an impact in the lives of poor people, you must work in cities,” said Lafitte. And it is precisely this population, in his view, that is subject to an erosion of rights that comes with insecurity.

 “We do not believe in repressive security measures that in essence, do no more than manage conflict and lead to an erosion of rights, such as more arrests, more weapons. We believe in a new paradigm: Conflict Transformation.”

Put simply, Conflict Transformation looks at four aspects of conflict: the attitudes and behaviors of individuals; relationships among groups (racial profiling, for example); cultural factors, (including traditional worldviews such as male chauvinism); finally it addresses structural issues such as poverty (while opposing criminalization).

Not content with the theory, the AFSC has launched three pilot projects this past September 29th in Latin America, after a process that included regional consultations, with universities, decision makers, practitioners and policy makers.

Indigenous heritage in Peru, urban tribes in Mexico and soccer fans in Colombia

In Peru, the conflict transformation initiative looks to recover indigenous practices of restorative justice among gang torn settlements. It focuses on El Callao, a neighborhood near Lima with a number of street gangs, second or third generation of people displaced by the war against the Sendero.

“We suspect they have inherited indigenous conflict resolution from their parents (whether they speak quechua or other indigenous languages) we want to know if elements of restorative justice still exist in their culture, consciously or not, and if element can be used to work in creating peace nowadays” said Annie Paredes, a member of ProDialogo, the NGO partner in the project, supported by the AFSC.

Prodialogo will create a transformation platform by contacting local groups and actors. Prime among the tools are storytelling activities that will ask on older members or migrant leaders of the community to inform younger members of the community on traditional, indigenous or ancestral ways to solving disputes once practiced in rural areas, prior to moving to the cities. 

“In some cases, communities have already set up different means of conflict resolution so it is crucial to know how they work and build upon local experiences” According to Annie Paredes, coordinator of the Peruvian project, they will start by holding workshops on negotiation, dialogue and conflict transformation, open to the tree main actors in security issues, which are the security institutions, local citizen organizations and of course, the youth street gangs. 

In Mexico, the challenge for conflict transformation takes up the so-called tribus urbanas. “Especially in poor areas, there are a number of youth cultures we know as tribus urbanas, met with unnecessary hostility by locals… their use of public spaces, squares, makes the population very nervous, they have become criminalized,” said Laffitte, who contends that although seen as dangerous or potentially criminal, “most of them have never been arrested.”

A segment of the barras manipulated by the paramilitary

“As if these youths were the cause of the insecurity”, explains Lourdes Morales from Alianza Civica the Mexican partner of AFSC.  The policies adopted to face the problem have been violent and intolerant, in Morales' view, “like the News Divine nightclub deaths this past May in Mexico city, precipitated by police action to curb alcohol consumption by minors,” said Morales.

“We are currently carrying out preliminary field research. There is insecurity in the area, with a high percentage of youths, high levels of unemployment and school drop out rates and few opportunities for the free expression of their identities,” said Morales,. The goal is to create a conflict transformation platform, to generate change in the relations among the various groups of the colonia Miravalle de la Delegación Iztapalapa, the pilot project designed for replication.

In Colombia the experiment in conflict transformation turned to another area of ambiguity between leisure and insecurity: the barras bravas, or soccer fan groups. “There is an association of barras that is trying to change the perception of society and the police, that they are supporters of soccer, not of violence,” said Laffitte. But the ramifications are not simple. “A segment of the barras is being manipulated by the paramilitary in the urban centers. They take advantage of violent events, to create a foothold in the community. Most of the conflicts are between the barras themselves. Can we transform the conflict between the barras?” that is the question that Laffitte raises. That is the question raised in these three small experiments in conflict transformation: what makes people make peace?