Breaking the Spiral of Violence: Pietro Ameglio on Civil Resistance in Mexico

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with Latin American peace educator and activist Pietro Ameglio about civil resistance in Mexico and the deeper dynamics of nonviolent struggle. Drawing on decades of organizing with grassroots communities, families of the disappeared, and movements confronting cartel violence, Ameglio reflects on concepts such as the “spiral of violence,” the difference between fear and terror, and the practice of what he calls “putting the body inside the conflict.” His work is rooted in a Christian peace tradition and shaped early on by the influence of Maryknoll priest Fr. Donald Hessler, a colleague of Dorothy Day who helped introduce Ameglio and others to Gandhian nonviolence through faith-based organizing and community work. While Ameglio acknowledges the complex realities communities face, he is not proposing a “diversity of tactics,” but pointing instead to the inner discipline and moral courage that nonviolence requires—the transformation of fear into constructive action and the cultivation of dignity, courage, and solidarity that make civil resistance possible.