Climate change scenarios predict alarming levels of water scarcity and damaging flood events worldwide. Considering hydric systems in integrated spatial planning will be crucial in mitigating, adapting, and reversing climate change’s catastrophic effects. This paper focuses on fluvial restoration as part of urban and territorial regulatory frameworks in the Andalién River and the city of Concepción in Chile. We consider three work scales: (i) basin, (ii) river reaches which focus on the city–river interplay, and (iii) site-specific, deepening the discussion around the last two. The objective is to elaborate an interdisciplinary dialogue between urban design, fluvial dynamics, and the Chilean regulatory framework where property rights play a predominant role in the management of natural resources (water and land). In this regard, the ‘New Latin American Constitutionalism’ offers concrete possibilities to operationalize an emerging paradigm that recognizes legal personhood for Nature. The incorporation of an ecological function to property rights emerges as a new way in which the principles of resilient urban development can be applied in order to combine river dynamics and urban growth.

Chile is currently facing a mega-drought, which is expected to lead to a significant increase in the water stress level. Social conflicts related to water use are linked to the effects of climate change and a governance system marked by the privatization of the natural resources of public interest. This study aims to analyze whether the current Chilean water governance scheme can adapt to the effects of climate change through a critical observation of the role of the River Vigilance Committees (RVCs; private user organizations exercising the public function of water management), from the perspective of Ostrom’s design principles for long-enduring Common-pool Resource (CPR) institutions. We analyze legal approaches, management mechanisms, and decision-making processes under the socio-climatic conditions that the country is currently facing. The results indicate that, with a few exceptions, the Chilean governance system does not allow RVCs to effectively incorporate the design principles—and, therefore, to achieve adaptation—due to dispersed functions, the exclusion of water users, and a lack of planning at different levels. We propose that water governance should consider the creation of River Basin Boards with broader planning powers, as well as the incorporation of different relevant stakeholders.

This paper reviews international and domestic normative and jurisprudential sources of the last twenty years on the Human Right to Water (HRW), focusing the study on Latin American countries that do not have this right expressly enshrined in their constitutional texts, especially Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. It analyzes the arguments used in its recognition, the elements of its structure, and the ways of addressing the problem of entitlement and enforceable duties. The conclusion shows a stage of jurisprudential progress in the first two countries (Colombia and Argentina), with a recognition of various contents of the DHA in accordance with international standards, while in the case of Brazil and Chile there is evidence, with nuances, of a limited recognition. In this regard, the internal normative structures differ in terms of the role of the State and individuals in water management, and the judicial tools for the protection of fundamental rights as a way of processing conflicts over access to water.

This article examines Chile’s 2013 electoral process as a turning point in the country’s recent political trajectory, focusing on the transition from the Concertación to the Nueva Mayoría. Using a historical case-study design and an explanatory approach, it traces the reconfiguration of the system of coalitions and analyzes the selection of presidential candidates, focusing on the first legally binding primaries and the difficulties in nominating a candidate in the governing party. The study draws primarily on official electoral results, complemented by national press archives and academic scholarship on primaries, party systems, and electoral behavior. Findings indicate that the election favored Michelle Bachelet and that, despite unprecedented candidate fragmentation and rising abstention, the outcome was shaped by the persistence of bi-coalitionism. The article concludes that the 2013 turn amounted to a controlled political shift – a strategic expansion of the center-left through the Nueva Mayoría that strengthened coordination and electoral advantage without institutional rupture, while foreshadowing more disruptive realignments in subsequent electoral cycles.

El desarrollo de nuevas formas de criminalidad, a nivel mundial y local, ha generado respuestas institucionales por parte de los Estados para intentar enfrentar esta amenaza. Como parte de estas políticas de fortalecimiento de la seguridad pública, en el caso de Chile, en 2023 fue aprobada y entró en vigor la Ley 21.542, que Modifica la Carta Fundamental con el Objeto de Permitir la Protección de Infraestructura Crítica por parte de las Fuerzas Armadas en Caso de Peligro Grave o Inminente. Ese mismo año, fue enviado al Congreso el proyecto de ley que la desarrolla y establece los criterios de criticidad, impacto y responsabilidad de los titulares de dicha infraestructura. Ante ello, este trabajo indaga en las posibles consecuencias de dicha intervención especial, utilizando como supuesto de análisis la situación de la infraestructura crítica en materia de acceso al agua y saneamiento, como caso ejemplar de servicio esencial para el mantenimiento de funciones sociales vitales. Se exploran las tensiones entre el aseguramiento de servicios básicos, el control de las amenazas de seguridad y la efectiva vigencia de los derechos y libertades fundamentales, para finalizar con un comentario crítico del enfoque de la reforma constitucional y proyecto de ley de infraestructura crítica de Chile, que en materia de acceso al agua canaliza incorrectamente las vías de protección y pasa por alto las necesarias medidas de apoyo a la seguridad de los sistemas de agua y saneamiento más vulnerables y susceptibles de interrupción.