Tierra y derechos humanos en Chile: la contrarreforma agraria de la dictadura de Pinochet y las políticas de reparación campesina

Abstract

Chilean agrarian reform from 1967 to 1973 involved a massive process of distributing 9 million hectares of land to peasants under democratic and legal conditions. However, following the military coup of 11 September 1973, the Pinochet dictatorship initiated agrarian counter-reform, which involved returning some of the settlements (asentamientos) to their former owners, fragmenting others into plots and transferring or selling other sections. This paper presents a synthesis of the research on agrarian counter-reform in Chile from the perspective of human rights, with the aim of articulating the agrarian question and transitional justice. It draws from primary sources to argue that the repressive and agrarian economic projects of the dictatorship corresponded to the same agenda of violation. Peasant compensation under democracy was insufficient and failed to restore the most important human right: land property to families victimized by the dictatorship.