Squatting in Chile

country marked on map
Territory of Chile in yellow

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.

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.