Barriers to Courts and Attempted Reforms

The squatter settlement movement confronted political parties with constituencies actively and recently organized around the issue of housing. These new settlements lacked a great deal more than housing. Their deprivation, new levels of organization, and the forthcoming presidential election of 1970 cumulatively pressured political parties to present programs promising to satisfy the settlements’ needs. Proposals for Neighborhood Tribunals emerged from the UP coalition and the Christian Democrats among other prospective housing, health, transportation, and education programs. ¹ Although the UP and CD proposals differed in content, and rested upon distinct ideological foundations, they agreed on one fundamental premise—that a large proportion of the population of Santiago, and of Chile, had little or no access to the courts or to legal services.