Redefining rules: A market for public space in Caracas,

Following President Chávez’s 1999 speech demanding that street vendors in Caracas “not be touched,” earlier efforts to evict informal merchants from public spaces were immediately curtailed. In areas of high demand for space, the state no longer enforces regulations regarding public space, a role informally assumed by individuals, who privately gain from the market transaction of buying, selling, and renting the constitutionally given “right to work.”