Without citizens there is no security: the case of Paseo de la Sexta
- Alejandro Biguria
- Aug 26
- 3 min read
In 2011, I had the honor of being elected President of the Single Neighborhood Committee of Paseo de la Sexta, in Zone 1 of Guatemala City. That appointment coincided with a pivotal moment: the revitalization of the Historic Center was making steady progress, but with it also arose tensions surrounding the use of public space, civic coexistence, security, and neighborhood identity.
With a group of committed neighbors—Eng. Óscar Domínguez, Juan Orozco, Gerber Villegas, Ana Lorena Briz, Anwar Khader, and Eng. Francisco Herrarte—we set out to define common criteria to address the neighborhood's challenges and design a course of action.
Citizens give birth to the Coexistence Pacts
As president, I promoted an initiative inspired by experiences in Bogotá, Colombia: the Coexistence Pacts . These agreements sought to build a collective framework to strengthen community life through citizen co-responsibility.
I had the opportunity to speak directly with Colombian sociologist Hugo Acero , one of the architects of the violence reduction in Bogotá. He gave us valuable insights: the need for co-creation , inter-institutional coordination , and, above all, the greatest challenge: cultural change . In his words, security cannot be understood solely as a function of the state, but as a shared responsibility of citizens .
In parallel, we delved into key texts such as Gino Costa's The Broken Window , Hugo Acero's Citizen Security: A Responsibility of Local Governments , and Guillermo Bonilla Arévalo's Citizen Security: A Current Challenge . The objective was clear: to provide theory and method for a civic process that aspired to preserve the peaceful atmosphere of Paseo de la Sexta.
The principles of a citizens' agreement
The Paseo de la Sexta Coexistence Pact was formalized on September 26, 2012. It defined principles that remain fully valid today:
Identity: “the positive action of the individual in the search for integration into the community.”
Respect: “the acceptance of non-legal rules of coexistence… based on social and cultural principles.”
Freedom: “the right of every person to act and think differently, without affecting the same right in others.”
Citizen participation: “a mechanism of interaction through which we exercise legitimate citizenship.”
Good faith: “the conviction of acting correctly under principles of honesty and rectitude.”
The pact also outlined clear commitments on issues related to the environment and health , use of public space , cultural management , and security . Its purpose was simple but profound:
“Promote identity, respect, dignity, equality, morality of human actions, justice, and peace to foster community life.”
The clash with institutionality
Despite the citizen effort and the coordination achieved with institutions such as the National Civil Police, the Municipal Police, fire departments, the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, the Chamber of Commerce and the Historic Center Directorate, the Municipality of Guatemala opted to develop a Regulation for the Paseo de la Sexta in parallel.
While the regulations provided a legal framework, they ultimately neutralized the transformative power of the pact: the strengthening of citizen co-responsibility. Unlike regulations imposed "from above," pacts originate from the community and aim for more lasting processes of social construction. Perhaps our initiative came at an untimely pace, in a context where local leaders failed to rely on the strength of neighbors and the private sector as allies in managing security and coexistence.
Lessons learned
From this process we learned lessons that are still relevant:
Security rests on three pillars: prevention, perception and control.
Prevention and perception directly involve the common citizen.
Control corresponds to public institutions.
The broken window theory is applicable to our context. An unrepaired broken window becomes a sign of neglect, leading to further deterioration and crime. Community participation in taking care of small details has a huge impact on the perception of safety.
Building trust is the greatest challenge. In countries like Colombia, community policing has shown that it's no utopia for those who care for a neighborhood to be known and protected by their neighbors. In Guatemala, where the gaps in trust are profound, political and citizen leadership is needed to build bridges.
A final reflection
The Coexistence Pacts on Paseo de la Sexta were a genuine attempt to promote a model of shared management of public space. Although the institutional path displaced them into regulations, the experience left us with one certainty: without citizen co-responsibility, there is no sustainable security .
The future of our public spaces depends on us assuming ourselves as active participants in the solution, not merely spectators who delegate everything to the State. The experience of Paseo de la Sexta demonstrates that without citizens, there is no security or sustainable coexistence. Only through leadership, trust, and collaboration can we ensure that our streets, squares, and parks remain true spaces of encounter, dignity, and peace.
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