The Question of the Legal Regularization of Urban Barrios in Venezuela

This article records the work pursued in the wake of an enlightening conference in October 1998 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Bidding farewell to a Brazilian researcher after the congress, it occurred to us to seek answers to a key question regarding the legal regularization of the urban barrios in Venezuela: Why has it not taken place?

Among the answers found by interviewing social actors who participate in the production of barrios were the existence, acceptance, and reproduction of legally precarious but stable possession. Certain evident causes serve to obscure other causes that may be key to understanding this question (Parts Two and Three).