Squatting in Chile

Squatting in Chile is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. From the 1960s onwards, informal settlements known as callampas were permitted although there were also evictions such as the massacre of Puerto Montt in 1969. In the 1970s, the government of Salvador Allende encouraged occupations, then following the coup d'état, the military junta repressed squatting. Callampas then became known as campamentos.

country marked on map
Territory of Chile in yellow

In the 1990s a program was begun to house all people living shanty towns. By 2007, 85.5% of the squatters identified in 1996 had been housed although there were also 20,000 new squatters. In 2018, there were 822 campamentos in which 46,423 families lived. Squatting is also used as a tactic by migrants occupying land near the Peruvian border, by indigenous Rapa Nui people on Easter Island and by anarchists in the capital Santiago.

History
Huts seen from above
A campamento

In Chile, the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964–1970) began to permit shanty towns.[1] The need for housing had been shown when 10,000 people squatted a delayed construction project in the capital Santiago in 1961.[2] The massacre of Puerto Montt occurred in 1969, when an eviction of a land occupation resulted in ten deaths.[3] Between 1967 and 1972, there were 312 occupations, housing almost 55,000 people.[4]

The government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973) encouraged occupations, then following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, the military junta repressed squatters.[1] The squatter settlements on the edge of cities were known as callampas.[5] Over the decades, the term changed to campamento.[6] Another phenomenon is the inner-city slum, originally known as conventillo.[7]

In the mid-1990s, the ruling Concertación coalition introduced Chile Barrio, a plan to house all squatters by 2002. The program was then extended to 2007, by which time it had placed 85.5% of the squatters identified in 1996 into subsidized housing. However, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MINVU) had profiled over 20,000 new squatters and therefore a new program called Línea de Atención a Campamentos (LAC or Focus on Settlements) was set up.[8]

Recent

According to figures released by the MINVU in 2011, there were 657 campamentos across Chile, in which 27,378 families lived and in 2018, there were 822 campamentos, where 46,423 families lived.[6] In the north of the country near to the border with Peru, there are informal settlements created by Bolivian and Peruvian migrants, such as the Granaderos and El Resplandor towns on the edge of the city of Arica.[9]

Anarchism in Chile is connected to self-managed social centres, several of which were raided and evicted in 2010, such as Johny Cariqueo in Pudahuel and Biblioteca Sacco y Vanzetti in Santiago.[10] Easter Island is a special territory of Chile. In 2010, indigenous Rapa Nui people squatted government buildings in a land dispute and were evicted by police who used batons and buckshot rounds.[11] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, high rates of unemployment led to a boom in informal settlements as people became unable to pay rent.[12]

References
  1. Hardoy, Jorge Enrique (1989). Squatter citizen: Life in the urban third world. London: Earthscan. p. 91. ISBN 9781853830204.
  2. Burks, Edward C. (2 August 1961). "CHILE SQUATTERS DEMAND HOUSING; 10,000 Homeless Camp on Site of Delayed Project". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  3. Salvo, Manuel Salazar (9 March 2019). "50 años de la Matanza de Pampa Irigoin en Puerto Montt". Interferencia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  4. Paley, Julia (2001). Marketing democracy: Power and social movements in post-dictatorship Chile. Berkeley. ISBN 9780520227682.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Handelman, Howard (1975). "The Political Mobilization of Urban Squatter Settlements. Santiago's Recent Experience and Its Implications for Urban Research". Latin American Research Review. 10 (2): 35–72. doi:10.1017/S0023879100029824. ISSN 0023-8791. JSTOR 2502758. S2CID 253138686. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  6. Arafat, Mohammed (20 February 2019). "Chile's Campamentos – An Invisible Tragedy". Chile Today. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  7. Portes, Alejandro (1971). "The Urban Slum in Chile: Types and Correlates". Land Economics. 47 (3): 235–248. doi:10.2307/3145054. ISSN 0023-7639. JSTOR 3145054. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  8. Özler, Ş. İlgü (July 2012). "The Concertación and Homelessness in Chile: Market-based Housing Policies and Limited Popular Participation". Latin American Perspectives. 39 (4): 53–70. doi:10.1177/0094582X10397917. S2CID 154971873.
  9. Aedo, Angel (3 December 2020). "Conflicting visibilities: Police and politics among border migrants in Chile". Security Dialogue. 52 (5): 418–435. doi:10.1177/0967010620964676. S2CID 229410703.
  10. Various. "'Caso Bombas'". Anarchist Library. Elephant Editions. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  11. Godfrey, Hannah (5 December 2010). "Chile sends extra police to evict rioting Easter Island squatters". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  12. "Pandemic fallout in Chile: Illegal settlements mushroom". Deutsche Welle. 11 February 2021. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.

Further reading
  • Murphy, Edward (2015). For a proper home: Housing rights in the margins of urban Chile, 1960–2010. Pittsburgh. ISBN 9780822963110.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Schneider, Cathy Lisa (1995). Shantytown protest in Pinochet's Chile. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-56639-305-8.
  • Photographs of La toma de Peñalolen squatter settlement
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