Chanti Ollin

The Chanti Ollin building in 2022. It is still unoccupied after it was evicted in 2016.

Chanti Ollin was a self-managed social centre in Mexico City, Mexico, between 2003 and 2017. It was occupied in 2003 by students from the 1999–2000 UNAM strike and participants in Okupa Che. It was a derelict five storey building at Calle Melchor Ocampo 424 in Cuauhtémoc.[1] The name means "house in motion" in the Nahuatl language.[1]

Alongside other squats such as Okupa Che, Chanti Ollin was listed by the Mexican intelligence services as an anarchist organisation attacking the state.[2] It was evicted and re-squatted in 2015.[3] The squat was finally evicted in November 2016.[4] Twenty five people were arrested and then released, and one Guatemalan national was deported. The squatters condemned the illegal eviction.[5] A protest camp was set up outside the building which lasted until February 2017.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c González, Robert; de Santiago, Diego; Rodríguez, Marco Antonio (2020). "Squatted and Self-Managed Social Centres in Mexico City: Four Case Studies from 1978–2020". Partecipazione e Conflitto. doi:10.1285/i20356609v13i3p1269.
  2. ^ Cortés, Raúl Rodríguez (11 October 2019). "Los ocho grupos de choque y sus titiriteros". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Dan formal prisión a hombre que invadió el predio "Chanti Ollin"". El Universal (in Spanish). 5 December 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  4. ^ "Mexico City: Chanti Ollin evicted". squat.net. 24 November 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Liberan a 25 detenidos por desalojo del Centro Chanti Ollin". Proceso (in Spanish). 22 November 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2021.