An underhanded war
The example of some world leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi left us great lessons. One of them is that the search for peace is never without violence. Persecuted and imprisoned for proclaiming ideas contrary to the established system, their moral strength sustained them during years of persecution and smear campaigns by the circles of power. Two of them - Gandhi and Luther King - were assassinated in a futile and belated effort to silence them. An underhanded war
From that capacity for resistance, from that intellectual and human solidity, the message of these thinkers emerged, whose essence radically transformed the way of seeing the world and left for posterity the message that respect for the human rights of the great majority it is the only possible path to peace and development.
Peaceful resistance was, coincidentally, one of the strategies used by these three characters in twentieth century history. From her emanated the certainty that, without perseverance, without a clear awareness of the reason for the struggle and without the conviction of the correct path to transform living conditions, there is no hope of change. But also, it was an example for future generations regarding the importance of seeking peace through truth as the only way to achieve reconciliation. On that path to understanding, all paths pass through justice. For this reason, a system designed to favor a few to the detriment of the rest of the population will inevitably get in the way of the search for peace.
To reestablish the rule of justice, knowledge is basic. The search for truth in countries burdened by past and present violence, with a history of warlike conflict and a large percentage of its inhabitants living below the poverty line, implies a process of catharsis, revelation and recovery of identity altered by decades of silence and repression. Reconciliation and forgiveness, therefore, are basic ingredients in this formula whose objective is to rebuild the social fabric to form a more just and egalitarian society.
The achievement of these objectives will collide head-on with the fierce resistance of those who hold the reins of political and economic power in their hands, considering as a threat the participation of the population in inclusive change processes, capable of opening the power structures to guarantee a true democracy. It is an underhanded war against any attempt to democratize the institutions that make up the base of the system. Fear leads them to close ranks against change and, incidentally, to create mechanisms designed to delegitimize those efforts.
Peace, as those great leaders taught us, represents the culmination of radical and profound processes of social transformation. It means the full acceptance of the rights of others, the claim of their place in society, respect for differences and the fight against injustice. There is no other way to achieve it.
Dreams of peace collide with the great powers that define everything
