Gating Tegucigalpa, Honduras: The paradoxical effects of “Safer Barrios”

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the paradoxical political and socio-spatial dynamics created by “Safer Barrios,” a security program that redefines notions of citizenship, governance, participation, and space in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The rapid proliferation of street gates sanctioned by the state under this program is producing understudied effects both within and outside the gates throughout the city, a phenomenon that this study qualitatively analyzes. The findings reveal that these newly gated residential areas demand a more nuanced analysis than that which traditional gated communities have received in the past; this stems from their different constitution and consequences, particularly the program’s unique relationship to and sponsorship by the local government. The program paradoxically fosters a greater sense of community and safety for participants while negatively affecting mobility and sociability for the rest of city residents. The findings hold critical implications for city design, planning, and policymaking.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In 2016, the City officials tallied 300,000 people residing in the legalized gates.

2. This name can be best understood as “Safer Neighborhoods” or “Safer Hoods.” However, we have kept it as “Safer Barrios” because of the intentional choice of using the word “Barrios” in Honduras. For more on the use of this word, please refer to this article’s third section titled “Lost-and-Found Public Space.”

3. These include articles from La Prensa (2014, p. 2016) of Honduras, Prensa Libre (2018) from Guatemala, and El Diario de Hoy (2017) from El Salvador, as well as reports from the United Nations (2013) and the National Democratic Institute.

4. 91.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2014), which made it the highest in the world.

5. Two years later, the requirement changed to require 90% of neighbors’ signatures.

6. This included the program application, the agreeing neighbors’ identification documents, and the associated application fees.

7. Officials in the Department of City Planning provided these numbers, which do not recognize the citizens living inside gates not legalized under the Safer Barrios program nor people living in private gated communities that are not required to be in the city’s program.

8. Smartphone usage and internet coverage have rapidly expanded in Honduras, increasingly limiting potential bias in the samples related to the online surveys. Smartphones are one of the top products sent as remittances from the United States to Honduras. According to an article from the Honduran newspaper La Prensa (“Crece la demana de smartphones en Honduras”) in 2016, 72% of the population had a mobile device; 34% had a smartphone. The following year, 90% of the population had a mobile device and about 23% had internet access. According to an article from La Prensa (“Noventa de cada Cien Hondureños tienen un Teléfono Celular”) in 2018, 90% of Hondurans have a cell phone. Today, a government initiative called “Internet del Pueblo” (“the People’s Internet”) allows for free Wi-Fi connection in many highly used public areas.

9. Shared by one resident of a Safer Barrios neighborhood in a focus group held in October 2015.

10. Ibid.

11. Shared by one resident in a Safer Barrios neighborhood in a 2015 interview.

12. Stated during an interview with a program official in March 2018.

13. Interviewed in 2015.

14. Lawyers argued against Safer Barrios before the Supreme Court of Honduras (Proceso Digital, Jan. 4, 2012).

15. Different sources show distinct numbers throughout the years, such as a 95% crime reduction from the Mayor’s Office after the first year, but more ambivalent numbers after the second year from the National Observatory of Violence.

16. Privatization methods that reduce the responsibilities and overload for the government, such as transferring property rights from the state to individuals or from services to private corporations.

17. From newspapers El Diario de Hoy (Choto, 2016) from El Salvador and Prensa Libre from Guatemala (2018).

18. Shared by one resident in a Safer Barrio in a focus group in October 2015.

19. Shared by residents in two different Safer Barrios in follow-up interviews in March and May 2016. Common communication topics include weekend and weeknight events, family news including someone’s passing, and invitations to celebrate holidays together such as a Mother’s Day lunch and a Christmas potluck dinner on their street or even locations outside their neighborhoods.

20. Currently, there is a shortage of quantified data on actual crime reduction in the newly gated streets, although the interviews suggest that there is in fact a significant crime reduction. However, as other gated communities literature suggest (Helsley & Strange, 1999), gating diverts crime to other communities and may in some cases increase the overall levels of crime. City authorities or organizations that gather crime data in Tegucigalpa however, have not quantified this.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristina Handal

Cristina Handal is an architect and urban designer, and has worked as a consultant and designer in Latin America, North America and Africa. She teaches courses in urban ecologies, urban design, architecture and graphic design at Parsons New School for Design. She is a PhD Candidate of Public and Urban Policy at The Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment at The New School. She received her architecture degrees from Barnard College and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, followed by a Master of Science in Design and Urban Ecologies at Parsons. In her research, she explores the intersections between physical space, social behavior and policy.

Clara Irazábal

Clara Irazábal is the Director of the Latinx and Latin American Studies Program and Professor of Planning with tenure in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design (AUPD) at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC). Before joining UMKC in 2016, she was the Latin Lab Director and Associate Professor of Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, New York City. She got her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and has two master degrees. In her research and teaching, she explores the interactions of culture, politics, and placemaking, and their impact on community development and socio-spatial justice in Latin American cities and U.S. Latinx and immigrant communities. Irazábal has published academic work in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, and has worked as a consultant, researcher, and/or professor in multiple countries of the Americas, Europe, and Asia.