Local Elites in Chile's Pisco Valley: Dispossession, Legal Mobilisation and Intertwined Citizenship

What the paper says

In countries in the Global South, citizenship is often closely tied to access to water and land ownership. In Latin America, the literature has primarily explored social mobilisation and identity reconfiguration in response to development‐driven processes of land and water dispossession affecting peasants, rural and Indigenous communities. However, the relationships between land and water dispossession, legal mobilisation and the construction of citizenship remain underexplored. This article analyses the sociopolitical effects of land and water dispossession in a rural community in a semi‐arid valley in northern Chile, where the expansion of agribusiness has profoundly transformed both collective and individual property regimes. Focusing on the Estero Derecho Valley, this study examines the role of local elites—members of the educated middle class—who position themselves as intermediaries and legal advocates for the comuneros most affected by dispossession. Through an analysis of internal power dynamics and the strategic mobilisation of both local and national law, this article shows how community leaders contribute to the construction of repertoires of action and the emergence of intertwined citizenship that reproduces a social hierarchy deeply rooted in colonial legacies and post‐colonial configurations.