Developing Latin America Recovering troubled cities through public spaces and libraries: The Caracas Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2020 Renny Granda Ecuador National Library “Eugenio Espejo” - Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana “Benjamı ´n Carrio ´n” Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo Universidad Auto ´ noma de Chihuahua Abstract The Caracas Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2020 (CMSP2020) is an instance of urban and environmental planning that seeks to construct a collective ‘city pact’ for Caracas, currently among the most troubled and violent cities in Latin America. Its main idea is to recover the city through the rescue of its public spaces, by centering on six strategic axes for transforming Caracas: accessibility and mobility; public safety, public spaces and housing improvement; environmental sustainability; productivity and entrepreneurship; governability; and the devel- opment of a constructive and responsible citizenship. This model, partly inspired by Medellin’s Library Parks, may be useful for other large cities in the region that suffer similar socio-political fractures, as well as accessibility, mobility, environmental, productive, governance and safety issues. Keywords Caracas, urban and environmental planning, public spaces, public libraries Introduction The idea of public libraries (PL) as spaces that may alleviate the issues of Latin American cities can be located in concepts that define them as: social and cultural institutions financed and regulated by the State for enabling free access to information ( ... ) to satisfy educational, informational, cultural and leisure needs. They seek to improve the quality of life for all people living in a community (municipality, rural area or slum), for the construction and articulation of demo- cratic relationships through free programs and services coordinated by professionals in the field (Jaramillo and Montoya, 2005: 35). Granda (2016) states that, from conceptions such as the cited, there has emerged another more complex, dynamic, urban and integral conceptualization: Library Parks, a new model of PL for Latin America with the potential of generating new opportunities for Latin American librarianship, through the rescue of the vision and leadership that such field used to have and should continue to have nowadays. This conceptualization was originated by Medel- lin’s Library Parks (MLP) in Colombia. MLP are cul- tural centers (librarianship definition) and central areas (urban definition), which are connected to the social realities of the communities and offer develop- ment opportunities that are tailored to their needs (Ca ´tedra Medellin-Barcelona, 2007). MLP emerged from identifying and confronting two main issues in the city of Medellin: social inequalities and the vio- lence that was entrenched within the city. As such, they sought to provide Medellin with “public spaces characterized by their quality offerings of cultural, recreative, educational, leisure, training and support activities for the most disadvantaged communities” (Ca ´tedra Medellin-Barcelona, 2007: 252). MLP offer many facilities, services and possibilities that are not Corresponding author: Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo, Universidad Auto ´noma de Chihuahua, Rua de las Humanidades s/n Campus Universitario I, Ciudad Universitaria, Chihuahua 31170, Chihuahua, Mexico. Email: jmachin@uach.mx Information Development 2018, Vol. 34(1) 103–107 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0266666917741069 journals.sagepub.com/home/idv