In the nineteenth century, pueblos de ratas (rat villages) developed when gauchos were forced to settle by the rural enclosures for cattle farming.
The name was a joke, referring to the Cantegril Country Club, which was built in 1947 at the most exclusive Uruguayan beach resort, Punta del Este.
[2]: 34 As the settlements legalize, they receive help from groups such as FUCVAM (Uruguayan Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives) and the slum upgrading program, PMB-PIAI.
[2]: 60–61 There also people squatting in slums, for example 60 families occupied the former Inlasa smelting factory in La Teja and then complained in 2004 about lead poisoning.
[1][3] La Solidaria was an anarchist self-managed social centre, squatted on Avenida Daniel Fernández Crespo y Cerro Largo in Montevideo in 2012.