The opposition between power and violence in the restructuring of the historical center of San Salvador from the theoretical perspective of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

The article addresses the relation between power and violence in the context of the history and politics of El Salvador, specifically in the conflict over the restructuring of the historic center of San Salvador, where informal vendors occupied public spaces for decades. Hannah Arendt's vision of violence as a means to achieve immediate ends, but neither legitimate nor lasting over time, stands out. Since colonial times, violence has been used (instrumentalized) by those who control political power to subjugate others. In El Salvador, political and social conflicts have been recurrent, with marginal groups resorting to violence when they are excluded from decision-making and opportunities. The State has also exercised so-called legitimate violence as a tool of control. But Arendt argues that power and violence are opposites: while power arises from the agreement between people, violence is instrumental and can destroy power. In the case of the historic center of San Salvador, municipal governments attempted to evict informal vendors by force, but these actions did not achieve lasting solutions and generated more conflict. Only through dialogue and negotiation between vendors and the municipal government was a peaceful and voluntary evacuation of public spaces achieved, returning power and control to the local government. This illustrates Arendt's idea: power is based on consensus and is lost when violence is resorted to indiscriminately.