Street Vendors in Colombia: Between Subsistence and Misuse of Public Space

Bogota once again reignited the debate over the limits of informality and the use of public space after a recent operation in one of the busiest commercial areas of Colombia’s capital. On a corner near a Zara store and the popular Andino mall, city hall officials and police officers removed a street vendor who was selling her products on the pedestrian thoroughfare, sparking a wave of criticism on social media and among public figures.

The image of the woman alongside her rolling cart, contrasted with a poorly parked SUV that went unsanctioned, triggered a deep discussion about how the phenomenon of the informal economy is addressed in the Colombian capital.

The fact is that, despite the evident drawbacks this activity causes — unfair competition and misuse of public space, in addition to litter — in Colombia there is a fairly widespread consensus that socially tolerates a way of making a living, given the traditional labor informality that dominates the job market.

The Bogota administration, for its part, insists that these interventions fall within a comprehensive policy to reclaim public space, especially during peak seasons such as December and January, when the city is more crowded, and pedestrian mobility is critical.

The mayor, Carlos Fernando Galan, has reiterated that these actions will continue and has invited informal vendors to seek authorized spaces, organized fairs, or formal premises to carry out their economic activity without obstructing circulation and the collective enjoyment of the streets.

The debate over the right to earn a living — to survive — and the rational management of public space repeatedly returns to the forefront, although the limited decisiveness of local administrations against these activities, due to the high costs involved in pursuing them, makes a definitive solution difficult.

Street vendors in Colombia: between subsistence and misuse of public space

The conflict between those who defend the free use of public space and those who invoke necessity as a reason to sell on the streets is old, but it has never been as present as it is now, as street vending grows exponentially in Colombia’s large cities.

In Bogota, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people depend economically on street vending, an activity that has grown as a result of the high labor informality that has historically characterized the entire country.

Recent figures indicate that a significant share of the city’s informal vendors have been identified through official processes, and that many more operate without formal registration on the streets of different areas of Bogota — not only in working-class neighborhoods and the downtown area, but also in highly commercial zones such as Chapinero or around large shopping malls.

Informality in Colombia is not a phenomenon isolated to the capital. National figures show a high proportion of workers who are unable to access formal jobs and turn to activities such as street vending to generate income, often indispensable for their subsistence.

In many cases, selling on the street is the only viable alternative in the face of a lack of opportunities in formal employment, educational conditions, or economic barriers that prevent access to a more stable business. This social reality puts local governments up against the wall, as they must balance the right to work with coexistence and the functionality of urban space.

From the standpoint of the local administration, the massive presence of informal vendors at critical points such as San Victorino, Seventh Avenue, or in Chapinero represents a serious problem for mobility and security.

According to authorities, the indiscriminate occupation of sidewalks and roadways not only complicates pedestrian traffic but also limits access to public services and generates tensions with established merchants, who pay rent and formal taxes, and constitutes clear unfair competition, in addition to a problem of cleanliness and urban mobility.

The government’s response has been a combination of enforcement operations, awareness campaigns, and tactical urbanism proposals that seek to organize space without always resorting to confrontation, especially during this December season, when street sales increase even more, if possible.

Criticism, responses … and the political use of a social problem

Nevertheless, control strategies have not been free of controversy. After footage of the operation in the north of the city circulated, politicians, journalists, and former officials questioned the harshness of the intervention and accused City Hall of applying measures that, in their view, punish poverty more than disorder.

For many critics, the image of a humble female vendor being removed from her spot became a symbol of a policy that, under the banner of reclaiming public space, forgets the human dimension of those who have no other means of livelihood. Social media is filled with messages denouncing classism and a lack of sensitivity in the handling of informality.

Segments of the public, however, support the government’s actions, arguing that the city must function for everyone and that chaos in public space ends up harming pedestrians, merchants, and residents alike. For them, unregulated informality turns streets into spaces dominated by disorganization and, in some cases, even insecurity.

This group says that only with clear rules and their enforcement can a balance be guaranteed between the freedom to work and the assurance of an orderly and accessible urban environment.

However, what is most troubling is the evident political use that both sides make of a problem that requires a social and citywide approach rather than a partisan one.

In response to a comment about this week’s operation in the area of Andino Shopping Center, announced by government councilwoman Cristina Calderon, former mayor Claudia Lopez — currently a presidential pre-candidate for 2026 — issued a harsh criticism.

“How miserable. All the power of the City Hall of Galan’s ‘Nuevo Liberalismo’ against a humble woman on a pushcart selling Christmas arrangements. A baton for someone who works without stealing to make a living because she bothers the stratum 6 people around her,” the former mayor wrote on her account on the social network X.

Lopez added, more as a criticism of the current local administration than as a solution, that “City Hall has all the tools to organize public space, respect humble and decent work, and have a minimum of balance and respect for people. Instead of using them, they flaunt their lack of humanity and judgment.”

Qué miserable. Todo el poder de la Alcaldía del “Nuevo Liberalismo” de Galán contra una señora humilde en un carrito rodante vendiendo arreglos navideños.
Bolillo para el que trabaja sin robar para ganarse la vida porque le estorba a los de estrado 6 que la rodean.
La Alcaldía… https://t.co/OCkOSIy217

— Claudia López Hernández (@ClaudiaLopez) December 17, 2025

Toward a structural way out of a nationwide problem

The discussion in Bogota reflects a structural problem that goes far beyond a single operation or a viral photo. For years, the city has been debating how to reconcile labor inclusion with the management of public space.

Institutions such as the Institute for the Social Economy (IPES) have promoted formalization processes that include the provision of semi-stationary furniture, designated zones and schedules, and the creation of commercial points where vendors can operate in a regulated manner.

These initiatives seek to serve as alternatives to street vending, although their scope and effectiveness are a matter of debate among experts, officials, and the informal workers themselves.

Nevertheless, the real impossibility for many of these people to regularize their subsistence commercial activity, combined with the lack of interest on the part of others who reject the consequences of formalizing their work in the form of fiscal oversight, complicates a problem that continues to grow in Colombia’s major cities.

At year’s end, while Bogota’s city administration announces more operations and organizational programs, the public debate in the capital and many other cities reveals deep tensions: The right to earn a living versus the need for urban space that works for everyone.

Between critics and defenders, the streets of many of these cities continue to be the stage where, once again, the search for solutions plays out — solutions that not only bring order to the urban landscape but also respect the realities of those who, out of necessity, seek in their hands and in the street a way to make a living.