El Salvador is a peculiar case in that over three decades it has faced two different types of violence consecutively (the civil war and widespread post-war violence), which have had different impacts on food security. The experience of El Salvador shows that no matter how successful peace processes may be at putting an end to armed confrontation and ensuring a degree of political and social stability, they are not sufficient to prevent new conflicts and new forms of violence if those processes are not linked with and complemented by medium- and long-term public policies aimed at altering structural factors that generate violence and social conflict, including the persistence of food insecurity. It also shows that adverse natural phenomena and external economic shocks play a fundamental role in the relationships between food security and violent conflicts due to their persistent negative impact on agricultural production and urban and rural household income. This paper was elaborated to provide background material for the report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017. Building resilience for peace and food security (available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-I7695e.pdf).