In a recent opinion piece for the Mexican newspaper El Universal, columnist Luis Arriaga Valenzuela turns his attention to the difficult and ongoing work of building peace across Latin America. The region, home to some of the highest homicide rates in the world despite not being at war, has struggled for decades with organized crime, political instability, and deep social inequality that fuel cycles of violence.
Arriaga Valenzuela frames peace not simply as the absence of armed conflict, but as a broader social and political project that requires addressing the root causes of unrest, including poverty, corruption, and weak institutions. His column reflects on the responsibility of governments, civil society, and international actors to work together toward solutions that go beyond short-term security measures.
While the piece does not lay out a detailed policy roadmap, it serves as a call to rethink how peace is pursued in a region where formal wars are rare but everyday violence remains a constant threat to millions of people. The column adds to an ongoing debate among Latin American intellectuals and policymakers about whether current approaches to security and justice are enough to break entrenched patterns of conflict.
To read Arriaga Valenzuela’s full analysis and arguments in the original Spanish, check out the piece on El Universal’s website.
Source: Construcción de paz en América Latina (eluniversal.com.mx). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Marco Antônio Lucas.