Asentamiento

Most have been established in the last 20 years as a result of economic inequalities between rural and metropolitan areas in Guatemala and Uruguay.

[1] In 1984, 800 families made a land invasion and successfully squatted an area called El Mezquital.

[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.

With a population of around 60,000 it is one of the largest slums in Latin America outside Brazil.

[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.