Carabineros, Chile's national police force, carried out the eviction of the Yevide toma (an informal land occupation) on Thursday. The settlement stood on land owned by water and sanitation company Esval in San Felipe, in the Región de Valparaíso. The operation enforced a ruling by the Juzgado de Garantía de San Felipe (the local criminal court of first instance) and, according to police, proceeded peacefully.
BioBioChile reported that around 2,000 people lived in the area, in roughly 400 homes spread over about 7.5 hectares. Carabineros gives higher figures. Colonel Manzur Abutom, prefect of Aconcagua, described land occupied since 2019 by 492 families and some 2,500 people.
Most residents had already left before the operation. Families were notified of the measure in early September and began dismantling their homes after that. Accounts of how many people remained differ: BioBioChile said fewer than 100, while the prefect said there were "no more than 20 people".
The early hours were not free of incidents. Debris and various materials were burned overnight, and around 5:30 smoke could be seen rising from the site. According to BioBioChile, the situation was brought under control. The eviction had been postponed by one day, giving occupants more time to remove their belongings.
Carabineros deployed more than 20 vehicles, with support from the Región Metropolitana (the Santiago metropolitan region). These included patrol cars and vehicles from the Grupo de Operaciones Especiales (GOPE), the police special operations unit, and the Sección de Investigación Policial (SIP), its investigative unit. The Policía de Investigaciones (PDI), Chile's investigative police, and electricity distributor Chilquinta were also present. Because few people remained on site, no clashes like those during the first eviction, carried out in 2025, were expected.
"This is an eviction that has been planned for months, in coordination with the Delegación Presidencial and the San Felipe mayor's office," Abutom explained. The Delegación Presidencial is the central government's regional representation. According to the prefect, most of the buildings are made of lightweight materials, though there are also solid structures in this sector, which was the first to be occupied.
The underlying question is where the families went. Authorities set up two shelters, on Salinas and Abraham Ahumada streets. The colonel said the former occupants did not move en masse to another location: "Some have chosen to rent, others have left the region." He added that there have been no reports of new mass land occupations. The sources do not report any permanent housing solutions.
Esval hired the machinery that will demolish the homes. The company will also dig trenches and build a perimeter fence to prevent the land from being occupied again. Another sector of the settlement is still inhabited, and its eviction is scheduled for January 2027.
