Mobility in Crisis: Security, Rights and Responsibility on Guatemala City Buses

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Dotson, Rachel
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology

Abstract

This thesis examines Guatemala City's contemporary "transportation crisis," including the assassination of over 800 bus drivers over the past several years, and state and civil society responses to this crisis. It focuses on the Transmetro, a Bus Rapid Transit system implemented by the municipal government that aims to provide secure transportation, as well as efforts by civil society groups to address violence on buses through campaigns focused on citizenship and human rights. In doing so, it addresses broader questions related to state efforts to resolve insecurity through infrastructure projects and the visions of security underlying such interventions. Since such efforts go beyond the construction of bus lines or the organization of routes to target the attitudes and behaviors of city residents, this paper pays particular attention to how projects to address violence on buses conceptualize rights and responsibilities of both city residents and the municipal state in relation to security.

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