Criminal Governance in Times of Post-Chávez Revolution and Questioned Legitimacy: A Look at the Different Territorial Orders and Armed Actors in Caracas

Abstract

Governança criminal em tempos de revolução pós-Chávez e legitimidade questionada: Um olhar sobre as diferentes ordens territoriais e atores armados em Caracas compara a configuração de duas ordens territoriais armadas e as formas de governança local em contextos neopatrimoniais autoritários em Caracas que sofrem do que tem sido chamado de "crise humanitária complexa". Dialogamos com os conceitos de governança colaborativa e governança criminal para entender como o controle social funciona localmente em um contexto autoritário em que uma crise política, econômica e humanitária tem restringido os recursos e o escopo do governo. O caso venezuelano revela com especial interesse os processos de mutação nas relações entre os atores armados e um Estado fragmentado para funções de controle social em seus territórios, em um contexto de legitimidade disputada.This article compares the configuration of two armed territorial orders and forms of local governance in neo-patrimonial authoritarian contexts in Caracas that suffer from what has been called a "complex humanitarian crisis". Based on the analysis of ethnographic data, this text dialogues with the concepts of collaborative governance and criminal governance to understand how social control functions locally in an authoritarian context where a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis has restricted the resources and scope of government. The Venezuelan case is especially revealing of processes of mutation in the relations between armed actors and a fragmented state that involve social control functions in their territories in a context of contested legitimacy. Palavras-chave: governança criminal, governança híbrida, ordens territoriais armadas, despotismo armado

Sustaining criminal governance with horror: The use of extra-lethal violence to regulate community life

“…Criminal civilians: When armed groups exercise territorial control, they not only establish codes of behaviour for their members, but many have also established a system of rules for criminals outside their structure 88,89 . Some armed groups have established punishments for those who engage in theft within the community, 90 sexual violence, 91 drug use, 92 or so-called "social cleansing" campaigns in the name of stopping waves of violence. 93 Thus, we assume that if a group has established criminal governance, it will also begin to establish rules for criminals outside its structure.…”