La dureza de la calle. Gobiernos del sexo callejero en Caracas

Abstract

The harshness of the street. Governments of street sex in Caracas. This paper is part of a broader investigation on the functioning, management and regulation of illegal markets in Caracas, understanding as such not only those in which prohibited goods are traded, but also, as in the case of street prostitution, those that cannot access legal mechanisms of regulation and conflict resolution. Based on an ethnographic research of more than a year’s duration in two contiguous but distinct contexts of street prostitution, one more central and crowded and the other in a more peripheral and hidden street, we compare illicit practices, patterns of violence and, above all, mechanisms of regulation and governance. In the more peripheral plaza, episodes of violence, including sexual violence and aggression among sex workers themselves, are more common, as well as illicit or deviant activities, such as robberies, the sale and consumption of narcotics, and prostitution of adolescents and girls. Regulation relies on coalitions, individual responses or a figure of “patronage” (the “mothers”) in which older prostitutes lead and protect groups of young prostitutes in exchange for gifts. In contrast, in the more buoyant plaza, where more centralized and sophisticated control mechanisms are operated by a group of women prostitutes and former prostitutes (with the support of trans prostitutes) and in partnership with the police, violence, conflicts and infractions are significantly less frequent.