Water crisis in the North of Chile. Law and culture in the andes. On the irrational effects of law

Abstract

This article is an investigation that contributes to the study of my discipline on the delimitation of the relationship that the State of Chile has maintained with the Andean native peoples, on the shared use of water, from a legal and social perspective. Thus, I consider it important to establish that, in our opinion, true public policies that aim to respond to the needs for recognition of the ancestral possession of the waters of indigenous peoples have not been implemented. This position is supported by the following points: 1) the Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile does not contain a true recognition of its intercultural character, which in practice facilitates that in the establishment of public policies the right of cultural identity of indigenous peoples in Chile is violated. 2) In Latin America, "water cultures" are part of the rational use and management of water and in Chile there is no real conceptual clarity about the scope of these customary uses. 3) The customary use of water by the indigenous peoples of the the Atacama Desert has been recognized as an exercise of the right of indigenous peoples in Chile, by both national and international doctrine and jurisprudence.