The Securitization of Urban Space and the ‘Rescue’ of Downtown Mexico City: Vision and Practice

One important feature of the neoliberalization of urban governance around the world has been the rise of an urban entrepreneurialism promoting projects of urban renewal and the upgrading of historic city centers. These developments contribute to an increasing securitization of urban space and the eviction of “undesirables” from the renewed and upgraded areas. An examination of these processes in the implementation of the “rescue” of Mexico City’s historic center and the related securitization of urban space in the neighborhood of La Merced reveals that the implementation and sustainability of this local urban renewal project is constantly challenged and modified by the presence of powerful illegal actors and informal practices of negotiation.