Generational change and peasant radicalization. Evolution of the agrarian reform process in Paine (1967-1973)

Abstract

This article deals with the process of peasant popular mobilization within the rural commune of Paine, Chile, between 1967 and 1973. It analyzes its internal dynamics and socio-political configurations, a process interfered by the permanent and growing tension with the large estate owners’ sector (the latifundistas). This determined how the deconstruction of the estate order in the commune was resolved and the emergence of a new generation of peasant leaders who, after the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, were persecuted, tortured and exterminated; in the middle of one of the largest and bloody peasant massacres committed in the history of Chile, being also one of the least known.