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Asentamiento

Anasentamiento irregular, known colloquially as an asentamiento (Spanish pronunciation: [asentaˈmjento]) is a shanty towninLatin America, particularly around Guatemala City and Montevideo. Most have been established in the last 20 years as a result of economic inequalities between rural and metropolitan areas in Guatemala and Uruguay.

Guatemala City[edit]

In 15 of the 23 districts of Guatemala City, there are precarious settlements. In 1984, there were 103 and by 1991 there were 232. In 2016 there were 297.^[1] In 1984, 800 families made a land invasion and successfully squatted an area called El Mezquital. The settlement eventually swelled to over 25,000 people. It was the first successful occupation since 1976.^[2]

These places have been considered "red zones" inside Guatemala City, because of their high crime rate and some of them are El Caracol, Cañaverales, El Rinconcito.^[3] A famous asentamiento in Guatemala is La Limonada. With a population of around 60,000 it is one of the largest slums in Latin America outside Brazil.^[4]

Montevideo[edit]

InMontevideo, Uruguay before 1990, there were land occupations known as cantegriles. The land invasions can be split into accretions (gradual, individual actions) and planned (organised, collective actions).^[5] Gradually, cantegril has come to refer to the poorest of shanty towns, whilst groups of houses on squatted land are known more generally as asentamientos irregulares or asentamientos in short.^[6]

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