Territorial implications of criminality and religiosity in Caracas’s barrios

ABSTRACT

In Caracas’s barrios, criminal and religious activities accompanied by flexible community dynamics influence residents’ social construction of their territory. This article presents how these activities continuously reshape conceptualizations: the public, private, community and spatial boundaries of barrios. By applying a qualitative approach to interpreting participants’ perspectives, the relationship between criminality and religiosity, and their link to territory are analysed. The study shows that criminal gangs privatize barrio public spaces, and that through Catholic processions those spaces become public again, thus demonstrating the temporality and flexibility of the public-private and territorial conceptions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge all the participants who volunteered their time to make this research possible. I would also like to thank Professor Heather MacDonald who provided meaningful feedback for the development of this research and this paper.

Disclosure Statement

There is no potential conflict of interest to report.

Notes

1. In Caracas, barrio thugs are called Malandros.

2. Ñ is referring to the basketball court ‘El Parquecito’, which is translated into English as ‘the little park’.

3. Purple is the traditional colour associated with the procession of the Nazarene.

4. Snakes is the Venezuelan slang word for having problems with another thug or gang. Usually, it means that another thug wants to kill the person with the snake.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.