Forced displacement: political operation to dispossess the homes of forest communities of the Panguipulli Forestry and Timber Complex (COFOMAP), 1978-1994

Abstract

The 1973 coup d’état installed a bloody civil-military dictatorship in Chile, causing considerable effects in the Andean territory of the southern province of Valdivia. In this sense, different strategies and mechanisms appear as instruments of a process that sought to occupy and control the territory. One of these, forced displacement, was temporally extensive and can be associated with the new neoliberal policies implemented by the dictatorship and continued thereafter, hence the timeframe from 1978 to 1994.

This work is articulated around the question: What housing policies were defined during this period, causing forced displacement in this Andean space?

First, we will review the literature on the territory and period studied. Subsequently, we will analyze the development of forced displacement and the mechanisms that define it from the perspective of public policy regarding housing, indicating the effects on the Andean space occupied by forest communities. To this end, we will draw on various primary sources: testimonies from displaced persons, public documentation from the Chilean State, and press reports on the process, providing an account of the reconfigurations experienced in the aforementioned area.