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Original article: Campamento Placilla de San Antonio emprende inédita acción legal: Nadie puede ser desalojado sin juicio previo

By Andrés Figueroa Cornejo

On July 3, at the Courts of Letters in the port of San Antonio, the community members of Placilla settlement and camp in the Valparaíso Region filed a legal demand stating that the eviction order issued by a protection resource «cannot be enforced against those who were never parties to that judicial process, were never summoned, and had no opportunity to exercise their right to defense,» emphasizing that «no family can be evicted without a prior trial.»

According to attorney Gustavo Burgos, who represents nearly 1,700 families from Placilla, «the civil action presented is of immense political, social, and legal importance.»

«This is not merely a new judicial submission in response to an eviction threat. We are witnessing the first known civil action at the national level aimed at confronting, within the institutional framework, the judicial shift in recent years that has aligned the Courts with the interests of large real estate companies and landowners, undermining the protective intent of the protection resource,» the lawyer explained.

– How has the protection resource been corrupted in these cases?

– In conflicts related to land and housing, especially since 2023, this mechanism has progressively been transformed into a swift tool for collective evictions, utilized by large landowners to achieve mass evictions without undergoing ordinary trials, without real individualization of the affected families, and without guaranteeing the fundamental right to be heard.

– What substantive argument supports the measure taken by the camp residents?

– The demand does not seek to formally disregard the existence of a Supreme Court ruling concerning the Fundo Miramar protection resource. What is proposed is different and decisive: a ruling cannot produce effects against individuals who were never part of the process. No one can be evicted based on a verdict from a trial in which they never participated.

This principle, which should seem basic in any Rule of Law, has been eroded by a judicial orientation that has turned the protection resource into a shortcut for resolving complex social conflicts that should be debated in comprehensive trials. There lies the heart of the problem.

Real estate companies and large landowners have found in the protection resource a rapid pathway to circumvent ordinary procedures, evidence debates, the individual identification of occupants, and the defense of families.

– Has justice turned a blind eye to the detriment of the homeless?

– The Courts have ended up functioning as cogs in a territorial planning policy that serves real estate capital.

In the face of a deep housing crisis, urban land shortages, speculation, rising rental costs, and state neglect, the institutional response has increasingly become repressive: evict first and debate later; execute before judging; transform the property rights of large landowners into an absolute title against communities deprived of housing.

Gustavo Burgos emphasized that «the civil action from Placilla is significant beyond this specific case. It opens a line of legal defense against a national trend. It re-centers the guarantee of due process, the relativity of res judicata, and the right of access to justice.»

«The demand is not a delaying tactic nor a desperate resource. It is a substantive legal response to a serious institutional distortion. A protection ruling cannot be used as a universal eviction title against an entire community,» asserted the attorney.

The Humanity of Placilla

Construction technician Braulio Bulnes has lived in the Placilla camp for nearly seven years and explained that the settlement «was born and has grown under the principles of self-management and the autonomy of its residents.»

«We have 1,042 lots, organized in sectors. Through assemblies, we managed to outline streets, define lots, and install electric lighting. In 2023, after 21 days of mobilization, we signed a contract with Chilquinta (which is usurious, by the way) that charges us a corporate rate,» Braulio revealed.

– Did the assembly dynamic work on all occasions?

– Over time, a group of neighbors noticed the emergence of authoritarian and anti-democratic leaderships. In response to this verticality, I was elected to represent a position contrary to what was happening, always based on the unity of the camp, but avoiding the electoral clientelism of the political party system which began to become a harmful habitual practice (regardless of the distinctions among them).

Soon we learned that the state bureaucracy is one of the main promoters of the endless lines to resolve housing issues. To tackle these problems from a conduct founded on the ethics of solidarity and cooperation, we established the community center Nidos de Queltehues.

– A titanic task you set out to accomplish!

– With the selfless support of various professionals, we dedicated ourselves to building an urban project, according to current regulations and rooted in our definitive settlement in Placilla.

And the settlement pertains to all the years of tremendous effort and organization by the working people of the camp in building a neighborhood, a community, safety, without State presence.

– Do you see any difference with the Centinela camp in San Antonio, which can even be seen from Placilla and has suffered abuses, violent expulsions, and deceit?

– Here we have not allowed the entry of any government in power or the intervention of their political parties. Everything we have done has been with popular independence.

Cultural worker, merchant, and accountant Vania Gómez shared, «For over a decade, I was paid minimum wage and could never access a mortgage. I participated in housing committees where I futilely lost my limited resources. Now I am finally settled with my family in Placilla. We don’t want handouts; we want to pay a fair price to live here. We want to contribute to San Antonio.»

Meanwhile, Fernanda Quinteros, who lives in house 205 on Los Yuyos passage, sector B, mentioned that after waiting unsuccessfully for a housing opportunity in various committees, «I decided to move to Placilla. I started by sleeping in a tent, and through my work, I managed to build a decent home with recycled materials for my two children and my partner, who works in organic gardening.»

Finally, Evelyn Ortiz, a worker and mother of two young adults, shared that after renting in the nearby town of Algarrobo next to San Antonio, and due to the pandemic, her family had to wander from place to place until they learned that «in Placilla they were selling lots to build a home and be quiet, with our garden and our animals.»

«For the first time, my mother, my kids, and I felt we are in a place that belongs to us. That’s why we plant trees—we’re putting down roots,» expressed the resident.

We will continue to report.

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