In light of these difficult eviction circumstances, the Vicente Solis Housing Committee and the 17 de Mayo Housing Cooperative, with the support of the Human Rights and Evictions Network and the No to the Anti-Toma Law Coordinator, have come together to pursue a unified strategy. This collaboration demands the inhabitants’ rights and promotes necessary dialogue to reach solutions based on effective collaboration among the concerned actors and respect for human rights through the following measures:

● Apply immediate reparation, including compensation, for losses to habitat wealth and/or well-being for families due to the forced eviction and demolition of the settlement.

● At the negotiation table, provide temporary accommodation of these organized families, without regression in the conditions of the habitat, especially for girls and boys, awaiting permanent resettlement;

● Specify the instruments to develop and implement eviction protocols in the case of any type of eviction in Chile that the state must base on human rights standards;

● Create the conditions for permanent resettlement, integrating the demands of several housing organizations (e.g., the communes of Pudahuel, Cerro Navia and Renca) to achieve the best possible use of the scarce available urban land;

● Respond to these demands by implementing current instruments such as the Housing Emergency Plan, PEH 2022–2025, and the Just Cities Plan.

In the early hours of Thursday, 16 May (one day left before the fifth anniversary of this popular settlement), more than 100 troops violently descended on the community, using tear gas, cornering the families toward the perimeter and beginning the total destruction of 200 homes with backhoes. The victims of this act of violence were left on the street.

This is the violent outcome of a land occupation, since 2019, by families from Cerro Navia, a popular sector of the City of Santiago. Forced eviction is a gross violation of human rights, in particular the human right to adequate housing. The State of Chile is obliged to fulfill this right, having ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

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On 2 October 2023, the Chilean Supreme Court issued an order to evict 11.3 hectares of the Fundo Santa Elvira Sector, in the commune of Cerro Navia, Metropolitan Region. Some 200 families have lived there since May 2019, having no other housing alternative. The community’s takeover of the land for housing[i] arose from a group of the Cerro Navia commune residents who decided to take over a piece of land on the urban limit of the commune that was vacant for 20 years (Figure 2). Neighbors with knowledge of topography drew up a subdivision plan prior to the occupation. On the other hand, agreements and duties of coexistence were defined between the new neighbors from the first moment of occupying the land.[ii]

I. Families affected by the eviction order

The eviction order affects 200 families, including 150 children, from Toma 17 de Mayo, the majority of whom are original residents of the Cerro Navia Commune. They are impoverished families with generations of life stories attesting to long-term poverty. Currently, most families in the area work as home consultants, construction workers, specialized teachers, and in informal jobs, such as vendors at free fairs or in cleaning and food preparation activities. Many families face other situations of vulnerability, with elderly people, bedridden people and people with catastrophic illnesses.

With reference to the land they occupied on 17 May 2019, residents have reported: “In our five years of existence, we have given ourselves a decent place to live with our own efforts, building our homes on land that, until then, was a vacant lot and a garbage dump, a piece of land that we transformed into the living space of our community.”[iii] The initial planning has managed to respond well to the needs of each family and the installation of basic services such as water and electricity. The distribution is exceptional, compared to other settlements, since the systems were designed prior to the occupation, defining lots of 14x29 meters grouped in blocks of 4, with roads of 6–7 meters wide, and spaces provided for community and transportation infrastructure. recreation (Fig. 3).

These good results can be explained fundamentally by the desire of the residents to build a neighborhood to stay in, responding to the dream of a decent space to live, constituting a space that gives families the possibility of cultivating a garden, having a workshop productive, a garden or a patio for children to play. “However, the dozens of meetings of the Working Group established two years ago with Serviu, Municipality of Cerro Navia and, recently, with the Presidential Delegation, have not contributed to reaching a solution that improves or, at least, does not worsen conditions of life. Days after the eviction, most families continue living in the occupation, explaining “we have no other place to live.”[iv]

[i] In Chile, the term and concept of a ‘toma’ refers to a popular settlement similar to an ‘encampment’ on occupied land.

[ii] Zenteno Lepe and Lucas José, Taller de proyecto de título: (LAV) Laboratorio de Vivienda: Emergencia Habitacional, Magíster en Urbanismo (Santiago: Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Estudios Urbanos Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2024).

[iii] Interview with Soledad Terán, resident and coordinator of Toma 17 de Mayo, April 2024.

[iv] Ibid.

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