Street Trade in Latin America: Demographic Trends, Legal Issues, and Vending Organizations in Six Cities

Abstract:
This paper looks at street vending in six major Latin American cities: Bogotá, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; Mexico City, Mexico, Santiago, Chile; and São Paulo, Brazil. The paper analyses demographic trends and working conditions among street vendors; the legal framework governing street vending; and street vendors’ organizations. The paper does not go into detailed analyses of the organising strategies in different cities, but rather comments upon the influence that the vendors’ organisations have on urban policy making in the different cities. Where organizational strategies are discussed, the organisations tend to focus on solving conflicts between members, as well as representing the members’ interests to local officials. In some of the cases, the organisations are closely linked to the broader labour movement, whereas some organisations choose to build alliances with political parties.