Castigando la pobreza: criminalización y represión al vendedor ambulante en el Centro Histórico de Quito

Abstract

This research develops a legal and constitutional analysis of the repression exercised against street vendors in the Historic Center of Quito, with the purpose of explaining how the conception and management of public space in this heritage area legitimize practices of control, persecution, and punishment of this social group. To this end, the historical, economic, and regulatory background of street vending is examined in order to understand the structural context in which state and municipal intervention operates, as well as the urban planning strategies that, under the guise of heritage preservation and commercial regulation, transform street vendors into subjects to be disciplined and justify the persistence of operations, evictions, and punitive mechanisms in this specific urban space. Using articles as a theoretical basis and contributions from other authors on the subject, this research focuses on analyzing the contradiction between constitutional norms and the regulations of the Municipality of Quito and how this gap results in the rights of street vendors not being fully respected and, furthermore, in their being subjected to discrimination and criminalization by the authorities. It should be emphasized that this research, by adopting a qualitative and quantitative approach, is based on legal literature, statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, the analysis of the Gabriel case, and interviews conducted with street vendors who have been subjected to arbitrary conduct by metropolitan agents; however, these agents do not act in isolation, but as part of a broader institutional apparatus that responds to municipal guidelines on the management of public space in the Historic Center.