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Overview

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Argentina

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Bolivia

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From the beginning of the 19th-century, there was internal migration from rural areas to cities such as Cochabamba. By 1951, the migrants had begun to seize land and build informal settlements. The land invasions continued despite the authorities often evicting them and from 1945 until 1976, 10 per cent of development in Cochabamba was illegal.[1] From the 1970s the government has attempted to regularize the squatter settlements and the programs have largely failed due to corruption. A fresh initiative set up in 2002 did not prevent new settlements being squatted.[1]

In the 1990s, La Paz had 48 unauthorised graveyards where the poor buried their dead. The land was squatted and there was no record of how many people were buried in the cemetries.[2] There are also squatters in the forest lowlands who are illegal loggers.[3] Indigenous peoples occupied a gold mine at Tacacoma in 2015 which they said was on their anecestral land. When 200 police officers attempted to evict them, four were taken hostage and one died.[4]

Brazil

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Main article: Squatting in Brazil

After attempting to eradicate slums in the 1960s and 1970s, local governments in Brazil transitioned to a policy of toleration. Cities such as Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have large informal settlements known as favelas such as Rocinha.[5]: 32, 83, 92 [6] The 2010 census showed that around 11.25 million people or 6 per cent of the total population lived in favelas.[6]

Another phenomenon is the occupation of buildings in city centres by organised groups. Between 1997 and 2012, 120 buildings were occupied in central São Paulo.[7] In rural areas across the country, the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) arranges large land occupations.[8] The Cambridge Squatter (Brazilian Portuguese: Era o Hotel Cambridge) is a 2016 film directed by Eliane Caffé and set in a squatted hotel in São Paulo.[9]

Colombia

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In Colombia, as in other Latin American countries, informal settlements result from internal migration to urban areas, lack of affordable housing and ineffective governance.[10] The Colombian Constitution of 1991 states that housing was a universal human right.[10] In 2010, Colombia was the country with the second most internally displaced people in the world, at an estimated 4 million.[11] This was the result of an extended civil conflict between rebels, paramilitaries, cocaine traders and the state, which left 40 per cent of rural land without legal title.[11]

In the capital Bogotá, squatting has traditionally not been the main technique for land acquisition, since people tend to purchase land legally and then subdivide or develop it illegally, creating "pirate neighbourhoods".[12][13] In 1970, 45.9 per centof Bogotá's population lived in these pirate neighbourhoods, as compared to 1.1 per cent who were squatting.[13]

Ecuador

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Squatting in Ecuador is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. It has been shaped by factors such as rapid internal migration to urban areas and economic instability.[14] The population of the capital Quito has grown sevenfold between 1950 and 2001. There are three types of slums in the city, namely barrios periféricos (shanty towns on the edge of the city), conventillos (dilapidated tenements in the urban centre) and rural shanty towns from where inhabitants commute to work in the city. An estimated 170,000 people were living in slums in 1992.[14]

In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and main port, an estimated 600,000 people were squatting on self-built structures over swamplands or lived in inner city slums in the early 1980s.[5]: 25, 76  Illegal settlements frequently resulted from land invasions, in which large groups of squatters would build structures and hope to prevent eviction through strength in numbers.[15]

Guyana

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Panama

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In the 1950s, informal settlements formed on the edge of urban areas. The capital Panama City had 11 squatted areas in 1958 with a population of 18,000. By the 1970s, there were 34 areas with around 100,000 inhabitants. Squatters were often able to legalize their sites.[16] There were many squats in Colón, including the Wilcox Building.[17] Casco Viejo housed squatters, before its historical centre was gentrified in the 2000s after being made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[18]

In 2013, President Ricardo Martinelli introduced Law 44, which sentenced those convicted of squatting to between one and three years imprisonment. If those convicted have encouraged or sponsored the occupation, the sentence is increased to a maximum of six years and if the area in question is protected, then the sentences can be doubled.[19] The Housing and Land Planning Ministry (Miviot) announced in 2020 that in Panama City there were 22 squatted areas in Panama Centro, 68 in Panama Este, 60 in Panama Norte and 33 in San Miguelito.[20]

Paraguay

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General Alfredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay from 1954 until 1989 before being deposed by another general and fleeing to Brazil, where he died in 2006.[21] Following the end of military rule, peasants and tenant farmers (campesinos) seized the chance to occupy land. By mid-1991, over 360,000 hectares had been squatted by 19,000 families.[22] Under the 1992 constitution of Paraguay, the ownership of private property is protected. The principle of adverse possession does exist: if a squatter possesses land for over 20 years then they gain title to it.[23] When Paraguay turned to soybean production to boost its economy, this led to squatters being evicted from land which the state had sold to Brazilian businessmen or being displaced as a result of toxic chemicals used by the new farmers. Indigenous Guaraní people migrated from the countryside to Gran Asunción, the metropolitan area around the capital Asunción, where they live in shanty towns known as villas.[24][22] A common form of work for the new city dwellers is recycling trash materials, which can be hazardous to health.[25]

The Mesa Coordinadora de Organizaciones Campesinas (MCNOC, Coordinating Board of Peasant Organizations) protested for the rights of peasants and authored a plan to reclaim 12 million hectares of land that had been sequestered under the military dictatorship.[26] Alongside other groups such as Campesinos Sin Tierra, MCNOC then organised land invasions to provide land to live on.[26][27] In 2019, squatters who had occupied the former summer residence of Alfredo Stroessner in Ciudad del Este discovered human bones under a bathroom.[21] The squatters had been searching for buried treasure; the Truth and Justice Commission declared it would test the bones to find out if they belonged to any of the 459 people who were disappeared or killed during Stroessner's regime.[21]

Peru

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Main article: Squatting in Peru
Photograph of shacks
A pueblo jóven in 1997

From the 1940s onwards, land invasions to create shanty towns called barriadas and later pueblos jóvenes have occurred in Peru. At first they were repressed, then the government began to tolerate them and by 1998 it was estimated 2.5 million inhabitants lived in pueblos jóvenes in the capital Lima alone.[28] Peruvian law states that squatters on publicly owned land cannot be evicted if they have stayed there for over 24 hours. Instead they can apply for legal title to the courts and if the land has not been developed over the previous decade, they are likely to win the case.[29] In Lima there are also slum tenements in the centre known as solares or tugurios, and a Wall of Shame has been built to separate rich and poor areas of the city.[28][30] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, an increase in the occupation of UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Caral and the Nazca Lines was reported.[31][32]

Uruguay

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Main article: Squatting in Uruguay

In the nineteenth century, pueblos de ratas ("rat villages") developed in Uruguay when gauchos were forced to settle by the rural enclosures for cattle farming. In the early twentieth century, European migrant workers lived in conventillos (tenement slums).[33] The first cantegril land invasions came in Montevideo, the capital, in the 1940s.[34]: 33  By 2006, around 140,000 people were living in asentamiento irregulares in Montevideo, making up 11 per cent of the city's population.[34]: 39 

Venezuela

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Main article: Squatting in Venezuela
Informal settlement
Informal housing in 23 de Enero in Caracas

In Venezuela, informal settlements known first as "ranchos" and then "barrios" are common. In the capital Caracas notable squats have included the 23 de Enero housing estate, Centro Financiero Confinanzas (a derelict skyscraper) and El Helicoide, a former shopping centre which is now a notorious prison.[35][36][37]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Navarro, Ignacio A. (2010). The legacy effect of squatter settlements on urban redevelopment. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER. ISBN 978-92-9230-260-3.
  2. ^ Escobar, Gabriel (14 May 1996). "LAST RESORT IN BOLIVIA: SQUATTER GRAVES". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  3. ^ Ebeling, Johannes; Yasué, Maï (February 2009). "The effectiveness of market-based conservation in the tropics: Forest certification in Ecuador and Bolivia". Journal of Environmental Management. 90 (2): 1145–1153. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.05.003.
  4. ^ "Bolivia policeman killed in clash at Tacacoma gold mine". BBC News. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b Hardoy, Jorge Enrique; Satterthwaite, David (1989). Squatter citizen: Life in the urban third world. London: Earthscan. ISBN 9781853830204.
  6. ^ a b "Favela life: Rio's city within a city". BBC News. 9 June 2014. Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  7. ^ Zhang, Yue (21 May 2020). "Rightful squatting: Housing movements, citizenship, and the "right to the city" in Brazil". Journal of Urban Affairs: 1–18. doi:10.1080/07352166.2020.1749005.
  8. ^ Fernandes, Bernardo Mançano (15 May 2015). "The Formation and the Territorialization of the MST in Brazil". In Carter, Miguel (ed.). Challenging social inequality: The landless rural worker's movement and agrarian reform in Brazil. Durham, NC: Duke. pp. 115–117. ISBN 9780822351863.
  9. ^ Pinto, Ivonete (2016). "Squatting as Scenery". FIPRESCI. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  10. ^ a b Everett, Margaret (1999). "Human Rights and Evictions of the Urban Poor in Colombia". Land Lines (in Spanish). Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  11. ^ a b Otis, John (31 December 2010). "Land Reform Could End Colombia's Guerrilla War". Time. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  12. ^ Gonzalez, Carmen G. (2009). "Squatters, Pirates, and Entrepreneurs: Is Informality the Solution to the Urban Housing Crisis?". The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. 40 (2): 239–259. ISSN 0884-1756.
  13. ^ a b Rueda-García, Nicolás. "The case of Bogotá D.C., Colombia" (PDF). UCL. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  14. ^ a b Carrion, Diego; Vasconez, Jaime; Bermudez, Nury. "The case of Quito, Ecuador" (PDF). Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. UCL.
  15. ^ Lanjouw, Jean O.; Levy, Philip I. (1 October 2002). "Untitled: A Study of Formal and Informal Property Rights in Urban Ecuador". The Economic Journal. 112 (482): 986–1019. doi:10.1111/1468-0297.00067.
  16. ^ "Panama - Urban Society". Country Studies. US Library of Congress. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  17. ^ "Colón Struggles as Rest of Panama Races Ahead". The New York Times. 23 March 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  18. ^ Le Brun, Lily (8 January 2016). "Homebuyers return to Panama City's rejuvenated old quarter". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  19. ^ Staff writer (21 June 2013). "Squatters and their backers could face jail time". Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  20. ^ Staff writer (2 December 2020). "Panama's squatters struggling to put a roof over their heads amid pandemic". La Prensa Latina Media. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  21. ^ a b c "Bones dug up in 'house of dictator' to be tested for DNA". BBC News. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  22. ^ a b Nagel, Beverly Y. (January 1999). ""Unleashing the Fury": The Cultural Discourse of Rural Violence and Land Rights in Paraguay". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 41 (01). doi:10.1017/S0010417599001905.
  23. ^ "Paraguay". United States Department of State. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  24. ^ Diaz, Natalia Ruiz (2 August 2009). "PARAGUAY: Indigenous Squatter Communities Organise Self-Help". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  25. ^ Cunningham, Rad N.; Simpson, Christopher D.; Keifer, Matthew C. (January 2012). "Hazards faced by informal recyclers in the squatter communities of Asunción, Paraguay". International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. 18 (3): 181–187. doi:10.1179/1077352512Z.00000000027.
  26. ^ a b "Policca paraguaya detiene a campesinos sin tierra". Midland Reporter-Telegram. 24 June 2005.
  27. ^ Gillette, John Robert (2004). "A rhetorical analysis of the Campesinos Sin Tierra struggle for land reform in Paraguay". ProQuest. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  28. ^ a b Riofrío, Gustavo. "The case of Lima, Peru" (PDF). Urban Slums Reports. UCL. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  29. ^ Levinson, David. Encyclopedia of Homelessness. SAGE. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-7619-2751-8.
  30. ^ Campoamor, Leigh (29 March 2019). "Lima's Wall(s) of Shame: In the hills of Lima, a concrete wall divides a poor neighborhood from a wealthy gated community, marking a border def ined by centuries of structural neglect". NACLA Report on the Americas. 51 (1): 29–35. doi:10.1080/10714839.2019.1593686.
  31. ^ "Oldest city in the Americas under threat from squatters". Science X. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  32. ^ Taj, Mitra (15 August 2012). "Pigs and squatters threaten Peru's Nazca lines". Reuters. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  33. ^ Renfrew, Daniel (March 2013). ""We Are Not Marginals": The Cultural Politics of Lead Poisoning in Montevideo, Uruguay". Latin American Perspectives. 40 (2): 202–217. doi:10.1177/0094582X12467764.
  34. ^ a b Alvarez-Rivadulla, María José (2017). Squatters and the politics of marginality in Uruguay. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 9783319545332.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  35. ^ Foster, Kendrick (18 April 2021). "Taking Over the Superblocks". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  36. ^ Romero, Simon; Díaz, María Eugenia (1 March 2011). "A 45-Story Walkup Beckons the Desperate". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  37. ^ Olalquiaga, Celeste (2018). "El Helicoide: The futuristic wonder that now sums up Venezuela's spiral into despair". CNN. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
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