Resumen

UHEL, Mathieu. La revolución del agua en Maracaibo: ¿radicalización democrática o instrumentalización política?. CDC [online]. 2010, vol.27, n.75, pp.51-71. ISSN 1012-2508.

From its inception, the Bolivarian revolution incorporated the water sector in its project of changing the domination structure of the country and improving its citizens´ living conditions. With the aim of facilitating the organizational and decisional capacity of the users to gain access or to improve water services, the Technical Tables of Waters (TTW) were created in 2001 through the new Organic Law for the Supply of Water and Sanitation Services. The purpose of the article is to question the exercise of the participatory democracy in the water services field in Maracaibo. More accurately: how does the reform of the political local space take place? What power relations are established between the TTW and the hydraulic bureaucracy, in process of «bolivarianization»? What are the concrete achievements of the «revolution of water»?.

Palabras clave : Water; Revolution; Power.