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Actors within the soil management sub-system, their logic, interests and controversial relations in the process of urban transformation and current use pattern formation of the Luján river lower basin during the last ten years were identified within the conceptual framework of public policies. These interest groups' discourse and arguments have an impact on agenda creation, which is understood as the process of interest aggregation reflecting both the order of priority of social problems and the government's opinion of the situation. This paper analyzes written and oral texts and traces the various actors within this area of study as factors contributing to explain the reasons why certain topics are adopted as public problems and added to the government's agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s marked the start of the urban transport modernization in the main cities of Venezuela, including Maracaibo, the second city. It. was formally managed from the Mayor's Office of Maracaibo, but involved a number of national and international actors in a process that became embedded into an urban transport model of foreign origin, linked to the need of aligning this activity with the market economy requirements. The purpose of this paper is to identify the policy that resulted in the end, the different actors involved, and the role played by each of them. The basis assumption is the scarce local participation in this process, which arose from multilateral organizations. The results reveal that: 1) The main actors involved in the policy structuring were: World Bank, Systra-Sofrrtu Consortium, Maracaibo Urban Mass Transport Institute (Instituto Municipal de Transporte Colectivo Urbano de la ciudad de Maracaibo --IMTCUMA--), National Urban Transport Fund (Fondo Nacional de Transporte Urbano --FONTUR--), Ministry of Infrastructure (MINFRA), former Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), La Universidad del Zulia, President's Transport Commission for the city of Maracaibo, Venezuelan Transport Board, Mayor's Office of Maracaibo, and Metro of Maracaibo; 2) The participation of these organizations was very varying, the World Bank playing the directing role, and the others in different levels as advisors and implementers; 3) The policy was addressed to: reducing workers commuting times; incorporating private companies into the transport sector; and giving priority to the service provision in commercial and industrial sectors. The conclusion is that the transport policy in the city of Maracaibo occurred with the participation of multilateral organizations and very little participation of the local government and users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]