urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana ISSN: 2175-3369 [email protected] Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná Brasil
Kasang, Nicholas Socio-spatial violence prevention: Inhibiting violence in Caracas, Venezuela through spatial planning urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana, vol. 6, núm. 2, mayo-agosto, 2014, pp. 201-217 Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná Paraná, Brasil
Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=193130689007
Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto Nicholas Kasang Inibindo aviolênciaemCaracasatravésdoplanejamentoespacial Prevenção socioespacialdaviolência: in Caracas,Venezuela throughspatialplanning Socio-spatial violenceprevention:Inhibiting Resumo Abstract Studies Institute (GLOBUS), Berlin,BE-Germany, e-mail:nicho MSc inUrbanandRegional PlanningatUniversity ofAppliedSci ser atribuídaàsguerras doscartéis dedrogas ilícitas queconsomem o México, nemérepresentativa daviolência (JÁCOME; GRATIUS, 2011,p.2).Dessas três, Caracas éparticular. Sua taxa exorbitante dehomicídiosnãopode três dascidades maisperigosas domundosão localizadas naregião: Ciudad Juárez, SanPedro Sula eCaracas por níveissemprecedentes deviolênciaurbana. Noentanto, aAmérica Latinaresume maisessa tendência: O crescimento urbano contemporâneo emmuitas cidades daAmérica LatinaedaÁfrica tem sidoacompanhado consistently cited astheprimarycatal that af licts Central America. Moreover, the Venezuelan context the illicit drug trade-cartel wars that consume Mexico, nor is exorbitantits because h notable three, Caracasis these Of 2). cities, Ciudad Juárez, San Pedro Sula, and Caracas, are located dented levels of urban violence. Latin America epitomizes this Contemporary urban growth in many cities in Latin American and a spatialproposal for Caracas. conjunction comprehensiveliteraturein a reviewemploysstudy alternativeon knowledge preventionenhance lence and precedent MELLER, 2012,p.23).Implicationsofthiswork have thecapaci in areas that are either totally or partially excluded from eco initiatives. Spatial interventions have shown a “[…] signi ican on this reality, this work proposes the inclusion of socio-spat c interpersonal resolvean to order in person another eliminate “[…] as violence perpetuate that factors social of exacerbation characteristic of the contemporary situation. Rather, caraqueño Keywords : Urbanviolenceprevention. Socio-spatial intervention. Latin urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal ofUrbanManagement), v.urbe. RevistaBrasileirade GestãoUrbana(BrazilianJournal 6,n.2,p.201-217,maio/ago.2014 yst for theemergence of [email protected] ences Frankfurt amMain(FHFFM),researcher atGlobalUrban nomic development and larger society […]” (DÍAZ; it represented by the civil con lict-gang violence ial interventions into contemporary prevention t capacity to prevent the occurrence of violence within this region (JÁCOME; GRATIUS, 2011, p. omicide rate cannot be explicitlyratebe omicide tocannot attributed is further distinguished as inequality, which is everyday reactionary violence,isnotovertly trend as three of the world’s most dangerous an end in itself or a [mechanism] to injure/ to [mechanism] a or itself in end an insecurity has largely been attributed to the ty to augmentpredominantly technical vio- on lict […]” (SANJUÁN, 2002, p. 95). Based 95). p. (SANJUÁN,2002, […]” on lict with data analyses in the development of development the in analysesdata with Africa has been accompanied by unprece- mechanisms to preventto mechanisms insecurity. This American urbandevelopment.
DOI: 10.7213/urbe.06.002.SE05 ISSN 2175-3369 Licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons 202 KASANG, N.
de gangues que aϔlige a América Central. Além disso, o contexto venezuelano é distinto, porque a desigualdade, constantemente citada como o principal catalisador para o surgimento de violência reacionária não é característica em aprofundamento da situação contemporânea. A insegurança caraquenha, pelo contrário, tem sido amplamente atribuída à exacerbação de determinados fatores sociais, perpetuando a violência como “[...] um ϔim em si mesmo ou um [mecanismo] para ferir/eliminar outra pessoa, a ϔim de resolver um conϔlito interpessoal [...]” (SANJUÁN, 2002, p. 95). Por conta dessa realidade, este trabalho propõe a inclusão de intervenções socioespaciais em iniciativas de prevenção contemporâneos. Intervenções espaciais têm mostrado uma “[...] signiϔicativa capacidade de prevenir a ocorrência de violência nas áreas que são total ou parcialmente excluídas do desenvolvimento econômico e da sociedade em geral [...]” (DÍAZ; MELLER, 2012, p. 23). Implicações deste trabalho podem levar ao desenvolvimento de precedente de prevenção da violência predominantemente técnico e assim melhorar o conhecimento sobre os mecanismos alternativos para evitar a insegurança. Este estudo emprega uma ampla revisão da literatura em conjunto com análises de dados para o desenvolvimento de uma proposta espacial para Caracas.
Palavras-chave: Prevenção da violência urbana. Intervenção socioespacial. Desenvolvimento urbano da América Latina.
Introduction be the ifth-largest known reserves in the world (SALIEZ et al., 2012, p. 41). Furthermore, over the In 2011, the World Development Report calculated last two decades, the capital has experienced marked that 25% of the world’s population lives with reductions in poverty and urban inequality, the levels of violence that have “trans-generational latter of which is consistently cited as the primary repercussions” (ADAMS, 2012, p. 1). This violence catalyst for the emergence of everyday reactionary has shifted from the notions of civil war and violence (FAJNZYLBER; LEDERMAN; LOAYZA, 2002; con lict to contemporarily focus more on criminal VANDERSCHUEREN, 1996). Nevertheless, homicides activity, terrorism, and civil unrest. Consequently, in the capital metropolis have increased by 506% the spatial distribution of violence has deviated since 1990 (SANJUÁN, 2002, p. 94) and recently from the locations of historic transgressions, with reached 130 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, violence increasingly experienced in the expanding more than double the rate for the remainder of the cities of Latin America and Africa. country (GRATIUS; VALENÇA, 2011, p. 11). Latin America is notable in this context as nearly To address the increasing phenomenon of 80% of the region’s population resides in urban areas contemporary violence, the following multi-level study that are considered the world’s most dangerous is organized to expose the urban factors that have (SALIEZ et al., 2012). In particular, three cities increased the propensity for violent and criminal epitomize this reality: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; San actions in Caracas. This examination is facilitated Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Caracas, Venezuela. These by a conceptual grounding in the theory of violence cities are considered three of the most dangerous and its forms. The incidence of violence in cities on the planet due to their exorbitant homicide rates. and the larger relationship between urban processes Yet among these three, the Venezuelan capital is and insecurity is subsequently addressed, before the particularly notable since local violence cannot be experience of urbanization in Venezuela is appraised predominantly attributed to the illicit drug trade- to determine its in luence on the contemporary cartel wars that consume Mexico, nor is it due exacerbation of caraqueño insecurity. A secondary to the civil con lict-gang violence that has largely analysis of political, economic, and social phenomena characterized Central America since the 1990s. is likewise included, as violence occurs in a milieu of Venezuela, in comparison, boasts a gross domestic societal development that is similarly determinant. product per capita that is higher than the regional Following this preliminary study, a set of hypo- average due to oil deposits, which are estimated to thetical socio-spatial interventions is proposed to
urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management), v. 6, n. 2, p. 201-217, maio/ago. 2014 Socio-spatial violence prevention 203 address the complexity of violence in the urban person, or a group, that either results in or has a typology in which it concentrates: informal com- high likelihood of resulting in injury or death […] munities of the Venezuelan capital. These proposals (KRUG; DAHLBERG; MERCY, 2002, p. 4). focus speci ically on spatial intervention, which has shown a In addition to these tangible outcomes, the WHO also includes the less-obvious consequences of violent […] signi icant capacity to prevent the occurrence behavior, “such as psychological harm, deprivation, of violence in extensive areas of Latin America and mal-development that compromise the well- that are either totally or partially excluded from being of individuals, families, and communities economic development and larger society […] […]” (KRUG; DAHLBERG; MERCY, 2002, p. 4). This (DÍAZ; MELLER, 2012, p. 23). complexity within the de inition alludes to the multiple attributes and in luences of the concept Moreover, spatial intervention provides a me- and has led social scientists to further distinguish c h an ism to “[…] weave together socio-cultural between the various forms of violence. In its most development aspects, economic aspects, as well as encompassing classi ication, violence is differentiated operation and maintenance solutions […]” and thus into direct, structural, and cultural forms, with facilitate the comprehensive functionality necessary direct violence composing the most common to prevent urban insecurity (KRAUSE, 2011, p. 108). understandings of the term : direct violence is the Motivation for this work stems from the recently direct in liction of physical or psychological harm on enacted Gran Mision A Toda Vida Venezuela por una another individual resulting in intentional fatalities, Convivencia Segura, a contemporary Venezuelan assault, and/or sexual harassment (MUGGAH, 2012, initiative for public safety on the national level. p. 19). The central objective of the Gran Mision is to “[…] The occurrence of direct violence generates transform structural, situational, and institutional uncertainty, which is expressed as fear and insecurity, factors that generate violence and crime […]” without thus promoting the notion that particular institutions requiring “[…] more police, more jails, or greater or cultural establishments require protection penalization […]” (GOBIERNO BOLIVARIANO DE (MOSER, 2004, p. 4). To generate such protection, VENEZUELA, 2012). However, as recent protests mechanisms are constructed to negate this threat. have demonstrated, the programs of the Gran Mision Yet, intrinsic to many of these mechanisms are have had little effect repressing the occurrence of structural or institutional attributes that exclude violence in Caracas. Therefore, this work attempts or restrict certain portions of a population from to contribute to the development of comprehensive achieving a just and equitable lifestyle. In response security planning for the caraqueño communities to this reality, the concept of structural violence most affected by violence while simultaneously encouraging the incorporation of spatial attributes was introduced by Galtung (1969) to address within prevention programming for similar situations the issue of “[…] how various institutions and of urban insecurity. organizations cause harm to others as a normal consequence of the way they are structured and operate […]” (SANTA-BARBARA, 2007, p. 234). Violence: Categories and instigators The injustices (real or perceived) derived from structural violence may, in turn, “[…] provoke To suf iciently understand the contemporary direct violence as a response to exclusion from situation of Caracas, it is necessary to irst social, political, or economic systems […]” (MARC; conceptualize the theory of violence, particularly WILLMAN, 2010, p. 11). Moreover, these forms of in relation to cities. The World Health Organization structural and direct violence can be exacerbated (WHO) de ines violence as by cultural violence, which is the “[…] justi ication of direct and structural forms through nationalism, […] the intentional use of physical force or power, racism, sexism, and other types of discrimination threatened or actual, against oneself, another and prejudice […]” (FISCHER, 2007, p. 188).
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A secondary classi ication of violence evaluates obvious to many scholars early in the development the motivation behind violent actions. These of conceptual theory. The Social Disorganization motivations fall into three broad characterizations, Theory predicted that many risks for violence social, economic, and political, which can degrade were aggravated by the socio-spatial characteristics into further forms of violence when con lict arises of the cities themselves. This idea was advanced from the incompatible or contradictory goals of through the Ecological Systems Theory, which sought individuals or groups. Moser and McIlwaine (2004) to demonstrate that no single cause determined contextualize the intentionality in these forms: or explained violence; rather, multiple types of nested-factors, with bi-directional in luences in and • Social violence: violence motivated by the between each other at different levels, combined will to achieve or maintain social power to contribute to violence in an overlapping and and control; continuous manner (Figure 1) (KRUG; DAHLBERG; • Economic violence: violence motivated by MERCY, 2002). material gain, which can take the form of street In line with the Ecological Systems Theory, urban crime, drug-related violence, or kidnapping; violence has been described as following a similar, • And Political violence: violence inspired concomitant pattern: by the will to win or hold political power (FISCHER, 2007, p. 60). […] rapid growth of cities feeds the chaotic formation of [marginal areas], in which over- The inal form, political violence, can have a range crowding and competition for scarce resources of violent outcomes, such as “[…] the normalization combine with weak state security presence to foster of violence, [deriving] a system of norms, values, criminality and violence […] (MARC; WILLMAN, or attitudes which allow, or even stimulate, the 2010, p. 15). use of violence […]”, and can culminate in a form of state violence perpetrated through a lack of The urban growth rate has been directly reform within the police and judiciary systems attributed to enhanced violence (compared with or the inability to provide legitimate institutional city size or population density) as rapid urban control over violence (AGOSTINI et al., 2010, p. 3). growth contributes to infrastructure de iciencies The violence in Venezuela speci ically re lects this that exacerbate the everyday pressures of earning distinction, as even President Chávez has justi ied a living and raising a family, increasing tensions the violent appropriation of private property as an within families and communities and making it action against social injustice (JÁCOME; GRATIUS, easier for everyday con licts to escalate into violence 2011). (MARC; WILLMAN, 2010). Poor spatial allotments can Due to the multifaceted and interrelated nature further amplify the propensity for con lict, creating of violence, the need to comprehensively evaluate “[…] situational opportunities for perpetrators to the phenomenon by examining factors that in luence commit crimes without being seen or pursued by behavior or aspects that increase the risk of neighbors or police […]” (MARC; WILLMAN, 2010, committing or becoming a victim of violence became p. 66). Similarly, limited service provisions in one
Figure 1 - The nested factors of the Ecological Systems Theory Source: KRUG; DAHLBERG; MERCY, 2002.
urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management), v. 6, n. 2, p. 201-217, maio/ago. 2014 Socio-spatial violence prevention 205 community as opposed to another exacerbate a Venezuelan urbanization and the sense of social exclusion, which is itself a driver of propensity for violence violence, that then has the power to convert areas of a city into “no-go zones” for non-residents and The contemporary exacerbation of urban in- law enforcement professionals (MARC; WILLMAN, security in Caracas can be signi icantly attributed to 2010, p. 26). In this way, the real and perceived processes of spatial organization that have occurred th threats of violence combine to generate what Agbola since the early 20 century. By the beginning of the 1930s, oil and the state had come to dominate (1997) has termed an the economy and processes of urban expansion in Caracas (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2007). Programs such […] architecture of fear”: “increasingly higher walls as the Plan Rotival, which sought to order urban and barriers, more elaborate security systems, expansion through a system of straight boulevards the presence of private security, and, often, a and diagonal avenues, epitomized this trend, as stronger police presence in wealthier areas […] government policy reserved the city center for (AGBOLA,1997, p. 26). commercial and of ice use and pushed the metropolis into its modern linear shape, which made urban Such architecture fragments public space, breaks transportation necessary for city life (STANN, 1975). down social cohesion, perpetuates widespread The purchase of large single tracts of land in the insecurity, and, ultimately, diminishes the overall city’s east and their simultaneous subdivision and quality of urban life. development into housing at a relatively narrow
Figure 2 - The Super Bloque of January 23 shortly after construction Source: CENTENARIO DE VILLANUEVA, 2011.
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price range reinforced the segregation initiated locally known as barrios, “[…] trace their origin by such early planning endeavors (STANN, 1975, back to those irst twenty-four months following p. 160). Thus, “[…] the west became home to the the revolution than any other period” in caraqueño worker, while the wealthy and near-wealthy went history (RAY, 1969, p. 6). east […]” (STANN, 1975, p. 159). In response to the explosive growth experienced During the 1950s, federal control of urbanization in Caracas in the late 1950s, the Central Of ice continued as oil productivity doubled and the gross of Coordination and Planning (CORDIPLAN) was national product increased by 95% (RAY, 1969, p. created to “[…] propose the general framework for 5). Consequent rural-urban migration and informal physical and spatial planning on a national scale […]” urbanization were strongly controlled as the (FRIEDMANN, 1965, p. 17). Over the ensuing decade, regime sought to address low-income populations CORDIPLAN encouraged the growth of alternative through a series of Corbuserian-in luenced urban urban poles across the country. However, the Middle renewal projects, which were built to accommodate Eastern oil embargo of the early 1970s intensi ied 180,000 low-income residents across the capital the patterns of territorial occupation in Caracas and neighboring municipalities (Figure 2) (KÜHN, as laborers from neighboring countries locked 2013, p. 195). However, the Revolution of January in to the Venezuelan capital, locating predominantly 1958 ushered in a new and entirely unprecedented in the barrios (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2007). Yet after phase of informal development. Restrictions on land a few years of substantial growth, a shift in the settlement were lifted, and families immediately poured out of crowded informal developments to dynamics of oil wealth and a presidential decree claim vacant land on the outskirts of the city. forbidding the establishment of new factories in Caracas altered incomes (SÁNCHEZ, 2013), which When families, still in the countryside, heard had allowed families to improve their dwellings about the new opportunities, the low of migration within ive years in the 1960s (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, sped up tremendously, thus increasing further 2007). Subsequently, demand for new development [in Caracas] (RAY, 1969, p. 32). […] a process of generalized urban deterioration set in, where congestion and decline, [caused] by Such was the rate of growth that an of icial the decreasing availability of urban plots, [saw] report estimated that 100 new dwellings were families resort to building 2, 3, or even 7 stories being erected in informal settlements daily (RAY, on to already precarious dwellings […] (BRICEÑO- 1969). Not surprisingly, most of these settlements, LEÓN, 2007, p. 99).
Figure 3 - The extreme congestion of the barrios Source: BRILLEMBOURG; KLUMPNER; SCHWARTZ, 2011.
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Barrio density across the metropolis corres- or are used only in transit (ALEMÁN, 2008). These pondingly grew to six times that of the “formal” voids, which exemplify structural violence, have city (Figure 3) (ALEMÁN, 2008). Spatially, this enabled mass media – especially television – to density encouraged violence and crime because become disproportionately more important “as a it inhibited opportunities for natural surveillance. means for people who are isolated from each other From an environmental psychology perspective, this to make sense of their lives” (ADAMS, 2012, p. 32). density also promoted con licts between people, Yet, mass media has equally been shown to exacerbate the volatility of the situation, “[…] […] both because of aggression that appears naturalizing the violence that is reported, trivializing with many people and few effective norms for other types of violence, and increasing fear and cohabitation but also because unplanned urban insecurity among the population” (ADAMS, 2012, p. growth and subsequent densi ication [produced] 17). Such uncertainty has perpetuated violence as tortuous territories that [were] easily controlled it has “[…] reproduced and circulated stereotypes, by criminal groups and refractory to ef icient and stimulated scapegoating, and spurred increased secure action by the police […] (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, segregation, negation of citizenship rights, and 2005, p. 1640). further aggression” (ADAMS, 2012, p. 27). With the ubiquitous presence of television in even the Due to extreme urban consolidation and poorest urban homes, cultural consumption patterns the growth of insecurity, Caracas subsequently have caused this information to spread massively experienced a process of de-densi ication from the (BRICEÑO-LEÓN; ZUBILLAGA, 2002). Therefore, the 1980s onward. Both formal and informal urban multiplication of panic, suspicion, and arbitrariness sprawl expanded the city to the east (AZZELLINI; in social life have inhibited “[…] the mechanisms of LANZ; WILDNER, 2013). The convergence of these informal social control and the dynamic interactions contradictory processes fomented the propagation between residents and local institutions […]” (MARC; of forti ied enclaves: apartment high-rises, gated WILLMAN, 2010, p. 232). Consequently, a vicious communities, peripheral of ice complexes, and cycle of crime and violence has become socialized shopping centers, guarded by private security in contemporary Caracas. and high-tech surveillance. The reproduction of these developments in the 1990s reiterated socio- economic divisions as the growth of forti ied Supplemental instigators of enclaves for the elite coincided with 30% of the violence in Venezuela urban population, exclusively in the barrios, lacking municipal connection to water and sanitation Contemporary violence in Caracas cannot be systems (AZZELLINI; LANZ; WILDNER, 2013, p. solely attributed to spatial processes of urbanization. 15). However, the largely positive reception of The homicide rate, which was comparatively low many enclaves (including by the poor, who also during the period of rapid urban development, experienced closed shopping centers as “safe places exploded as urban growth began to stabilize in which to spend their leisure” (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, around the turn of the millennium. Furthermore, 2007, p. 98) created a “[…] public space fragmented this homicide rate was attained despite reductions and articulated in terms of rigid separations […]” in the percentage of the population experiencing (CALDEIRA, 2000, p. 4). poverty and inequality. Therefore, it is necessary to The fragmentation of public space has constrained evaluate other phenomena that have contributed to social activities and promoted the adoption of the substantial growth of violence in the Venezuelan radical changes in habits, cultural routines, and capital. collective behavior. Social mixing and interaction The following sub-sections analyze the are deliberately avoided, public space is used only circumstances that are supplemental to the spatial exclusively, and the traditional places of social development of the modern metropolis to further encounter, such as parks, squares, and even streets, contextualize violence in contemporary Caracas. have either lost their function and are abandoned According to the forms of violence outlined in
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the irst section, these segments will characterize of violence (Chavismo vs. Oposición) from the year violence into political, social, and economic 2000 onward. “The rise of political tensions led categories, as growth in the violence of Caracas has to open confrontation in signi icant events – the transpired within a milieu of political adjustment, 2002 coup, the oil strike in 2004, and street market luctuation, and the increasingly asymmetrical confrontations between supporters and opponents development of social relations (SANJUÁN, 1998). of the government […]”, thus contributing to a marked overall de-institutionalization of security (ZUBILLAGA, 2013, p. 110). Subsequently, the Political factors of violence predominant sentiment resulting from political violence became the fear “[…] of being attacked or Since the onset of increased urban violence in invaded by political opponents in periods of high the Venezuelan capital in the 1980s, the notion confrontation […]” (ZUBILLAGA, 2013, p. 115). that insecurity was resolved through the use of reactionary violence has become progressively more socialized. In February 1989, the government Social factors of violence of Carlos Andres Perez epitomized this trend, deploying the military to violently end the unrest As a consequence of this fear, alternative and due to working-class protests. An uncompromising predominantly individual means to ensure personal reaction plunged the capital into violence shortly security have been adopted by the majority of the thereafter, when military personnel took to the population. These means fall along a continuum streets in 1992 with the objective of occupying from defensive to perverse and extreme. Defensive the government. The accompanying increase in responses have led to the widespread privatization violence appeared to be the product of a severe of security, with an estimated 700,000 private institutional crisis that “[…] immersed Venezuela security agents - double the number of policemen in a kind of anomie, [which] lasted until an elected in Caracas - dispersed across the city (GRATIUS; president again took of ice in 1995 […]” (BRICEÑO- VALENÇA, 2011). More perverse responses to violence LEÓN, 2007, p. 92). Although homicide numbers have seen the formulation of contradictory social stabilized at around 4,000 per year during that identities, which are restricted to individual areas time, the situation changed dramatically in 1999 of the city and validate violence against anyone when Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez was elected who is not part of the more or less homogeneous president. Beginning in that year, the number of world of “us” (ZUBILLAGA, 2013, p. 106). Perhaps homicides grew nationally, surpassing 13,000 in the most extreme response to violence has been 2003 (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2007, p. 93). citizens’ increased approval of the right to kill: 60% Of particular in luence in the election of Chávez support the right to kill to defend one’s property, was the apparent legitimization of what Holston whereas killing an individual who attacks the (2007) has called “insurgent citizenship”: the community was condoned by 33% of respondents coalescence of insurgent movements that “[…] (BRICEÑO-LEÓN; CAMARDIEL; AVILA, 2006). These rede ine the nature of social incorporation and the reactions are exacerbated by citizens’ desire to buy distribution of resources […]”. According to Holston, irearms, which, in 2004, attained 47.8% of the these movements often derive from the construction population (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2007). Some experts of informal communities on the margins of cities have noted that most legal and illegal weapons and society, as informal urban dwellers create a vast in Venezuela - between 8 and 15 million - are in new city while simultaneously proposing a different civilian hands, which, in a country of approximately order of citizenship (HOLSTON, 2007). The election 28 million inhabitants, “[…] indicates that nearly of Chávez afforded this alternative citizenship a 50% of the population is armed […]” (JÁCOME; platform to challenge the entrenched formulations GRATIUS, 2011, p. 3). of order and repression. Accordingly, the political Not surprisingly, urban insecurity has become sphere became progressively more polarized, which less instrumental (focused on a remunerative goal) provoked an increasingly political-cultural form and more relational, with 64% of the violence
urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management), v. 6, n. 2, p. 201-217, maio/ago. 2014 Socio-spatial violence prevention 209 in Caracas derived from ights with friends or longer merely an aspect of survival in the city but acquaintances of the most primary environment rather a characteristic that is necessary to survive. (SANJUÁN, 1998). Violence, in turn, has become “[…] an end in itself or its purpose is to injure or eliminate another person to resolve an interpersonal Economic factors of violence con lict […]” (SANJUÁN, 2002, p. 95). As a result, every citizen becomes a potential victim, and even The economic situation has compounded the neighbors become potential perpetrators. Therefore, occurrence of violence further, as the country has community fragmentation has been promoted as fear been plagued by price luctuations and in lation over has become widespread across the various social the last decade, which have made Caracas the most spaces of the metropolis. This fear has eroded the expensive city in the Americas (THE ECONOMIST social fabric of communities as citizens, recognizing INTELLIGENCE UNIT, 2013). The resultant economic the lower probability of being a victim of violence violence derives from insuf icient employment at their residence (Table 1), have become prone to opportunities; the of icial unemployment rate in spend more time inside their households, promoting Caracas has grown since the capital reduced its a process of communal “unsociability” (ZUBILLAGA, participation in national industrial production in 2013, p. 117). the 1980s (MAYTÍN, 2013). Consequently, informal Such withdrawal has facilitated a marked employment has become an integral aspect of the deterioration in the control of social networks urban economy, representing 62% of all employment and coexistence schemes, as communal reliance across the capital (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2007). Although and trust have become unnecessary for both the not intrinsically violent, the informal economy individual and the group. Thus, violence has created has migrated toward violence for economic gain, an atmosphere in which everyday encounters with including drugs and arms traf icking and especially insecurity are perceived as a natural aspect of a kidnapping, as restrictions on informal sellers have perverse state of order, and fundamental elements increased. Moreover, available jobs in the service sector require educational achievement, which is of democracy, such as dialogue, negotiation of inaccessible to the majority of adolescents from the con lict, and the execution of political and civil barrios. Thus, perverse expressions of the informal citizenship, are no longer expected or necessary. economy are increasingly accepted by excluded Correspondingly, individualism and a lack of youth, who strive for consumption patterns that optimism have become “[…] inherent and constitutive “[…] cannot be satis ied with the conventional facts of contemporary Venezuelan society that methods of work and savings […]” (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, in luence shared expectations and the vision of the 2007, p. 95). future […]” (SANJUÁN, 2002, p. 93). This lack of The growth of economic violence, in turn, has faith produces a feeling of hopelessness and often affected individuals’ capacity to improve their living results in even more insecurity, as violence is no conditions and to dissociate from perverse forms of informal employment. Violence propagates the fear of victimization and thus inhibits information Table 1 - Perceptions of the Locations of Violence in Caracas lows about jobs, delays the establishment of small shops or stalls, restricts productivity by limiting the In the Place of Residence (i.e., Home) 1.48% number of hours of work performed, and depresses In Public Spaces of the Residence Area 34.93% sales because potential purchasers do not go out In Public Spaces outside the Residence Area 26.45% at night (MUGGAH, 2012). Moreover, there is the In Private Spaces (Offi ces, Workplaces, Restricted Areas, etc.) 16.25% additional expense that families and companies must Private Vehicles & Public Transport 20.51% bear, being obliged to allocate sizeable portions No Declaration 0.38% of their budgets to security: approximately 1.9% of the GDP per capita is spent on private security Total 100.00% measures (BRICEÑO-LEÓN; ZUBILAGA, 2002). Source: ELJURI et al., 2010.
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Additionally, it is necessary to consider the societal aspects, developmental aspects, and economic aspects costs of insecurity, as de icient investment (both as well as operational and maintenance solutions nationally and internationally) and the emigration (KRAUSE, 2011). This ability to comprehensively of professionals and skilled workers perpetuate address violence is integral to its prevention as inferior services, such as those in the health sector activities to reduce violence, like the occurrence (JÁCOME; GRATIUS, 2011). The populations residing of violence itself, must work on multiple and bi- in the barrios predominantly experience this burden, directional levels. magnifying the discrepancies that concentrate in In accordance with the opportunity provided by marginalized social strata. This concentration has spatial redevelopment, the following sub-sections largely negated the reductions of poverty and propose hypothetical interventions for the barrios inequality achieved over the last 20 years1 and has of Caracas, the urban typology in which violence exacerbated the occurrence of structural violence concentrates. These proposals are presented in the Venezuelan capital. to complement contemporary measures, which have been or continue to be enacted through the Gran Mision. They are proposed with a particular Proposal for prevention in Caracas orientation toward the relevant actors within the Gran Mision, but they also focus on enhancing Due to the complex and multifaceted reality communities’ capacity to address the incidence of of violence in Caracas, a comparably manifold violence themselves. response has been required from the Venezuelan authorities. However, the Gran Mision a Toda Vida Venezuela por una Convivencia Segura, a Enhancing the physical presence of national policy for public safety enacted in 2012, municipal institutions in the Barrios has done little to address the complexity of urban insecurity in Caracas. Preliminary stages As the spatial characteristics of the barrios- of the initiative have predominantly focused on often located on mountainous slopes and provisions for institutional strengthening, such as composed of a complex labyrinth of streets and police reform and disarmament. Although they alleyways - accentuate insuf icient municipal are imperative to the prevention of violence, these responses to violence in these settlements (BRICEÑO- activities have signi icantly overlooked many daily LEÓN, 2007), spatial intervention should enhance experiences of insecurity, thus prolonging a form of the physical presence of municipal institutions in political violence in which de icient governmental affected communities. The establishment of better provisions for security normalize violent occurrences security and justice institutions could substantially (AGOSTINI et al., 2010). reduce the occurrence of direct forms of violence, Consequently, the national government must since 70% of households attribute insecurity to the advance violence prevention activities and de icient presence of police (ELJURI et al., 2010). supplement contemporary initiatives of the Gran Moreover, attending to the overall institutional Mision. Spatial intervention provides a signi icant de iciencies that characterize the barrios would opportunity as it has been shown to “[…] prevent address the structural forms of violence in licted the occurrence of violence in extensive areas of on such communities and would likewise assist in Latin America that are either totally or partially reducing the expressions of cultural violence that excluded from economic development and larger have developed with the formulation of self-centered society.” (DÍAZ; MELLER, 2012, p. 23). Moreover, and divergent spatial identities. redevelopment of the built environment affords the To strengthen security and justice provisions capacity to weave together various socio-cultural in the barrios, precedent can be drawn from the
1 Since 1990, Venezuela has experienced a marked reduction in poverty levels, with the percentage of the urban population living in poverty and extreme poverty decreasing from 49% to 28% in 2010. Urban inequality (represented by the Gini Coef icient) has similarly dropped to 0.39 in 2010 from a level of nearly 0.50 circa 1990 (SALIEZ et al., 2012).
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Figure 4 - Mobile police facility, Bogotá, Colombia Source: UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME, 2011.
Figure 5 - Urban mobile library Source: ELEVENTH STACK, 2009. municipalities of Cali and Bogotá, Colombia, where mobility of such facilities has enabled them to provide small, mobile police units, crime scene investigation services to wider areas of informal settlements, facilities, and professional cohorts (Figure 4) thus addressing both direct and structural forms have been installed to provide surveillance, legal of violence experienced by these communities. procedures, and assistance in the resolution of Additionally, programming denouncing family and everyday con licts (MARC; WILLMAN, 2010). The intimate partner violence challenged intrinsic
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Figure 6 - Enhanced public life in Medellín, Colombia Source: UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME, 2011.
expressions of cultural violence and likewise and enhance safety by increasing passive surveillance achieved relative success (MARC; WILLMAN, 2010, (Figure 6). Moreover, mixed-use corridors provide p. 92). viable opportunities for capital generation in crime- In a similar vein, institutions such as clinics, prone areas; thus, they diminish the experience of libraries, or post of ices could be established structural violence in communities excluded from through analogous spatial interventions to attend the economic development of the formal economy. to the signi icant absence of such institutions Such intervention likewise minimizes the need to in the barrios. Mobile facilities would address resort to economic violence for inancial gain. experiences of structural violence in informal Because barrio streets that have a commercial communities. Furthermore, this intervention could function are often particularly limited, the also foster the communal appropriation of space development of mixed-use corridors is appropriate because these institutions are often locations for to prevent violence in informal communities of congregation (Figure 5). The focus within such the Venezuelan capital (ALEMÁN, 2008). However, intervention is on encouraging an enhanced sense of additional measures should be developed to more territoriality (belonging to place) by residents while speci ically address the situation of violence, simultaneously increasing natural surveillance of particular to Caracas. Legal and inancial measures streets and other public spaces. As the public realm should encourage single mothers to establish in the barrios has become increasingly unused, the businesses through this type of intervention, as occurrence of violence has become more consistent. extreme poverty tends to concentrate in female- Therefore, enhanced surveillance and ownership headed households across the barrios, reiterating could foster greater activity in public spaces and the structural violence in licted on informal promote perceptions of communal safety. communities (ALEMÁN, 2008). In combination with other municipal de iciencies, the structural violence experienced by youth in these households Encouraging business establishment has a strong tendency to result in acts of social through legal and fi nancial measures or economic violence across the larger community (CORREO DEL ORINOCO, 2013). A comparable spatial mechanism through which Therefore, facilitating the development of activity has been encouraged in the public realm is mixed-use corridors enhances violence prevention the development of mixed commercial and residential capabilities on various levels. Greater economic corridors, particularly in areas of the city at risk for capacity of single mothers would enable them to crime. These corridors facilitate pedestrian activity challenge the forms of structural violence that
urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management), v. 6, n. 2, p. 201-217, maio/ago. 2014 Socio-spatial violence prevention 213 have kept their families in poverty. Moreover, the NACIONAL EXPERIMENTAL DE LA SEGURIDAD, opportunity to work from home would allow single 2011). Much of this situation can be attributed to the mothers to attend to their children while engaging municipal and spatial de iciencies that characterize in economic activity. This is particularly important the barrios. In the parish of Catia in the city’s west, because a damaged relationship with the mother for example, 45% of adolescents between the ages of igure is a common characteristic of perpetrators of 16-25 years are not enrolled in secondary education violence in Caracas (CORREO DEL ORINOCO, 2013). due to de icient facilities (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL On the communal level, organizations run and EXPERIMENTAL DE LA SEGURIDAD, 2011). Moreover, managed by women “[…] are felt to be more 95% of adolescents between 19-25 years in the successful in building sustainable social relations parish do not participate in sports or other organized that, in turn, were thought to help prevent the recreational activities due to a lack of provisions incidence and spread of everyday violence […]” (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL EXPERIMENTAL DE LA (MCILWAINE; MOSER, 2007, p. 135). The jobs SEGURIDAD, 2011). Responses to such forms of and local markets created by such interventions structural violence often include acts of social could likewise reduce insecurity because they or economic violence, which affect the larger would increase pedestrian activities in the barrios community. and enhance passive surveillance. Moreover, job Accordingly, spatial intervention should focus development and local markets would address on enhancing the accessibility of recreational the structural violence that has kept many adults facilities since exposure to such facilities offers the unemployed since the capital reduced its percentage opportunity to form social norms while providing of industrial production in the 1980s. Therefore, legal verbal skills that enable individuals to “[…] express and inancial measures to encourage mixed-used feelings and manage con licts through negotiation development can help foment a virtuous circle of and agreement […]” (BRICEÑO-LEÓN, 2005, p. violence prevention and promote spaces of security 1643). Precedent for such facilities can be drawn within informal communities. from existing programs, including the initiative Labrotorio de Artes Urbano (Tiuna El Fuerte) in Caracas, which provides a space in which the Promoting adolescent-developed values of creativity, expression, and respect are & managed public spaces encouraged in young urban inhabitants (Figure 7) (LABROTORIO DE ARTES URBANO, 2013). Through Spatial intervention must also incorporate programs including instruction on graf iti artwork, violence prevention for adolescents as this cohort is music, radio broadcasting, and dance as well as over-represented in the igures on violence. Eighty other artistic media, Tiuna El Fuerte has been able percent of victims and 70% of homicide perpetrators to reach a substantial portion of local adolescents are males between the ages of 15 and 44 years who do not attend school or participate in athletic (GOBIERNO BOLIVARIANO DE VENEZUELAM, or cultural activities. Furthermore, Tiuna El Fuerte 2012), although the majority of both victims and programs encourage youth to amend the spaces perpetrators are under 25 years (UNIVERSIDAD of the facility to represent the culture of their
Figure 7 - Labrotorio de Artes Urbano, El Valle, Caracas Source: BUENADICCION, 2013.
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individual neighborhoods. This ability contributes professional assistance to realize collectively to the development of self-esteem in participants developed spatial intervention. This capacity to and discourages the need for detrimental social determine the amenities of local spaces affords support or “rituals of masculinity” that often communities the lexibility to evolve in accordance result in social violence (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL with changes in the urban environment while EXPERIMENTAL DE LA SEGURIDAD, 2011). similarly encouraging local accountability (UNITED Advancing this idea to other public spaces of the NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME, barrios provides the potential to prevent insecurity. 2012). Moreover, enhanced decision-making Adolescent-developed and managed public spaces capabilities would directly address structural can reduce direct violence by engaging the youth, violence, which has excluded the barrios from who are predominantly associated with violence, other processes of urban development. Empowering in activities for the conception, implementation, local communities could likewise contribute to control, and management of the public realm. diminishing the deep-seated culture of patronage Affording adolescents decision-making capacity can in the Venezuelan capital that has promoted a form also encourage greater safety because it reduces of political violence between con licting political their experiences of structural violence and could ideologies (ALEMÁN, 2008). likewise assist them in building relationships with An opportunity for local planning could focus public authorities and services, which might help to on expansion or alteration of the built environment prevent acts of violence in the future. Furthermore, as “[…] current rates of population growth suggest spaces designed and managed by adolescents are that another 100,000 [housing] units will be likely to facilitate greater use of the public realm by needed every year […]” to satisfy the contemporary this cohort. As previously noted, enhanced public de iciency (BRILLEMBOURG; FEIREISS; KLUMPNER, activity would facilitate greater surveillance and 2005, p. 253). could promote a process of ownership of open space. At the current rate of construction, the authorities undertaking these projects would need 75 years Fostering the planning capacity to meet demand; moreover, the various housing of local communities solutions attempted thus far are too expensive, inappropriate, and applied without consultation In a comparable manner, fostering the planning or coordination with the local community. capacity of local barrio communities can also enhance (BRILLEMBOURG; FEIREISS; KLUMPNER, 2005, violence prevention. Programs that delegate greater p. 253). responsibility for management, assessment, and decision making regarding daily urban conditions Therefore, communal planning capacity could in speci ic localities strengthen the bonds of augment processes of densi ication through, for cooperative autonomy (DAVIS, 2012). Furthermore, example, locally determined yet municipally advised the ability to provide care and management for community zoning ordinances. Such legislation shared community infrastructure “[…] can go a could accommodate the reality of continued barrio long way in keeping sustained connections within development while reducing vulnerability due to poor and between citizens and governing authorities self-construction. Precedent can be derived from the […]” (DAVIS, 2012, p. 19). These connections link program Campamentos de Pioneros, which provided the state and citizens to each other in ways that a platform for citizens who lost their houses during allow increased community autonomy from the the mudslides of 2005 to plan and build their own agents of violence and promote the realization of communities with professional assistance (KÜHN, focused practices that directly address the origins 2013). The structures incorporated to assist in of insecurity (DAVIS, 2012). the building process could be applied for similar To facilitate greater planning capacity, barrio community construction initiatives in existing communities could be afforded inancial and settlements.
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Conclusions society to prevent insecurity over the long term. Although it is acknowledged that spatial intervention Although the preceding study of Caracas cannot stop violence on its own, redevelopment predominantly focused on the contemporary of the built environment provides the capacity to situation of violence in the Venezuelan capital, address many of these differences. The ideals of the rate at which the world is rapidly urbanizing openness, indeterminacy, luidity, coexistence, and and concentrating populations in insecure and unassimilated difference “[…] moreover, have found impoverished sections of cities reinforces the some of their best expressions in the public spaces value of urban violence research. As metropolitan of modern cities […]” (CALDEIRA, 2000, p. 303). populations across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Central Asia continue to grow, the increasing number of individuals exposed to limited References resources, competition for employment, dense settlement patterns, and the occurrence of crime ADAMS, T. M. Chronic Violence and its Reproduction: has the propensity to exacerbate the incidence of Perverse Trends in Social Relations, Citizenship, and violence. Therefore, mechanisms for the prevention Democracy in Latin America. Washington: Woodrow Wilson of urban insecurity – particularly in currently violent Update on the Americas, 2012. Available at:
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