Felipe Tobar Arce

Felipe Tobar Arce is a founder of the Surviving Memory project, and he served as president of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association] from 2017 to 2022, representing the interests of massacre survivors. He is also the former mayor of San José Las Flores. He was born in Corral Falso, Potonico, Chalatenango, El Salvador. From 1982 to 1984, he was elected as general secretary of the Poderes Populares Locales [Local Popular Powers, PPL] for the municipalities of San Antonio Los Ranchos, Potonico, San Isidro Labrador, and Cancasque. From 1987 to 1989, he was elected president of the Directiva Comunitaria de la Comunidad de San José Las Flores [Community Directive of the Community of San José Las Flores]. From June 1988 to June 1990, he was elected president of the  Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango [Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR], as coordinator of communities and resettlement of the Northeast area of Chalatenango, which covered nine municipalities. He is a survivor of the Sumpul and the El Alto massacres. During the war, 18 members of his family were murdered. Throughout the war, he was displaced with his family, fleeing into the mountains and suffering inclement weather, hunger, diseases, and persecution by the repressive forces of the government until the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992. He has lived in San José Las Flores, Chalatenango, since 1986. In May 2012, he was elected mayor of the Municipality of San José Las Flores with the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional [Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN] party for a period of three years. In May 2015, he was re-elected mayor, retiring in 2018. On August 11, 2017, at the Asamblea General de Sobrevivientes [Survivor’s General Assembly], he was elected as the inaugural president of the Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association], a position to which he was re-elected in 2020, and served until December 2022.

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