Squatting in Peru (known in Spanish as okupa) is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. From the 1940s onwards, Peru saw the illegal occupations of empty land, which created shanty towns known as barriadas and later pueblos jóvenes. Initially repressed, the Peruvian government eventually decided upon their toleration, and by 1998, it was estimated that 2.5 million inhabitants of Lima lived in such types of settlements. Similar slum tenements existed in the centre, known as solares or tugurios.
In upper-class districts of the city, a number of barriers (known by critics as the "walls of shame") have been built to separate the upper-class from lower-class areas of the city. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in the occupation of land belonging to protected UNESCO World Heritage Sites, such as Caral and the Nazca Lines, was also reported.