An Example Of Creation Of Self-Managed Cities

CHAPTER 11 – AN EXAMPLE OF CREATION OF SELF-MANAGED CITIES – Walter Smith Cavalié

By

Walter Smith Cavalié

11.1 Introduction

In many cities around the world, took place the phenomenon of people occupying land and building their dwellings – often precarious – in municipal and even in private vacant lots. This is a serious issue for there is a social problem that must be solved, andbesides, a legal one, for these settlements constitutes an illegal occupation. Therefore, a coordinate action between people, City Hall and social offices must be given priority to solve this dilemma.

The first step is to know the problem and to formulate what actions are to be taken. From this point of view, the following questions arise:

 How to convert very poor neighbourhoods in thedeveloping world in a social, healthy and ecologic environment to satisfy the basic needs of a growing population?

 What action must be taken by governments to regularize human settlements in sites owned by the city, provincial or national government or private lots?

 How to convert a chaotic urban layout in a rational urban settling?

 How to provide this people with basic infrastructure(water, sanitation, electricity), as well as public health, schools and jobs?

This Chapter aims to show how this problem has been addressed in a settlement known as ‘Villa El Salvador’, located in Lima, Peru.Villa El Salvador (VES) is an actual example of creativity and ingenuity in town planning, designed by people with very low income - supported by popular organization and globalparticipation - who working in an hostile environment overcame difficulties and created a healthy and pleasant place to live.

Villa El Salvador has received many international prizes by the creative solutions that they gave to problems. Today is one of the 43 districts with more than 400,000 inhabitants of the city of Lima (Peru’s capital). It is the first city of Peru that applied and usesself-management in handling community problems without contributions from local authorities, and developing high negotiation capacities with the national government, often with popular mobilizations to demand answers.

11.2 Brief history of Villa El Salvador

To understand the VES phenomenon it is necessary to remember the political scenario in Peru at the beginnings of 70s, with a revolutionarygovernment in power causing profound political and economic changes in the society. The government took control of the main economic activities; nationalizing agriculture, industrial fishing, the banking system, and the social mass media (radio, TV, newspapers, etc.) and began an agrarian reform. These measures decisively influenced popular mobilization for people looking to solve housing problems andsocial exclusion.

In order to protect the revolution, the government assigned great importance to social mobilization, creating the Support System to Social Mobility (SINAMOS), in charge of organizing political activities supporting the revolution. This action provoked the emergence of leaders that played a fundamental role in the occupation of lands and in the further organization process.

InMay 1971, 200 poor families settled in private land located in South Lima, encountering strong opposition from the police, which repression increased in the following days with the arrival of thousands of new settlers. As the situation became unmanageable for the authorities, the government negotiated with the people their leaving; consequently, they were transported to government lands,consisting in a sandy and desert area located 25 kilometers south of Lima. In the following weeks, the population was steadily increasing with the arrival of new people reaching 100,000. The photograph shown in Figure 11.1 depicts the first facilities in that area.

This private land usurpation was planned and directed by a group of leaders, and, unlike other similar actions, the strategy was planned...