The increasing expansion of open-pit mining and the drastic transformations of land use in Latin America have led to processes of rural depopulation among traditional inhabitants, causing unsustainability in rural life systems. In the context of profound, worldwide territorial and environmental transformations, it is necessary to anticipate change scenarios and identify territories prone to rural depopulation. The objective of this article is to determine rural depopulation propensities through an exploratory multivariate study of the demographic, social, economic, and environmental conditions of territories where open-pit mining projects are being installed. First, a theoretical model is created using the grounded theory method for the literature review. Subsequently, indicators are analyzed using quantitative methods and geographic information systems. The results show that latent rural depopulation tends to be generated in territories with socio-environmental vulnerability, where advanced mining extractivism makes them prone to future depopulation. Some factors possibly leading to decreased rural population include the reduction of water availability; deforestation and depeasantization, due to urban development; gentrification, due to real estate speculation in providing lodging and food services to the mining project; and drastic changes in land use.

El artículo aborda las continuidades y cambios del extractivísimo en Chile en las últimas dos décadas. A partir de una construcción teórica inspirada en los aportes de la ecología política, proponemos un análisis del extractivismo que articula las tendencias de extracción de los principales rubros del extractivismo (minero, forestal, frutícola y salmonicultura), las readecuaciones en las estrategias de las empresas extractivas y sus alianzas con los gobiernos para llevar adelante proyectos de inversión, y la trayectoria de conflictividad territorial asociada al extractivismo. Para ello, hacemos una investigación documental con enfoque cualitativo que utiliza fuentes de información secundaria. Los principales resultados exponen que el extractivismo mantiene una continuidad y una consolidación de la diferenciación productiva hacia otros rubros como el forestal, las frutas y los salmones, además del cobre, los cuales presentan un comportamiento heterogéneo y una contra-tendencia con la dinámica de los demás países de la región latinoamericana en cuanto al valor de las exportaciones. Tal situación ha sido posible por el impulso de una desregulación legislativa que ha permitido generar condiciones para la acumulación de ganancias durante el boom de las commodities. Otro componente importante en la trayectoria del extractivismo es su adecuación frente a la dinámica sociopolítica ya que, frente al incremento de la conflictividad ecoterritorial, la construcción de legitimidad para los proyectos extractivos se vuelve un factor cada vez más relevante en la estrategia de implementación de estas iniciativas.

One current global problem is the shrinkage of rural areas, which is expected to become an increasingly recurrent dynamic caused by the transformations in land uses and forms of habitation of the contemporary era. Patagonia is a suitable case study to understand the processes and challenges exposed by rural shrinkage, which not only addresses population loss but also the causes and consequences that transform rural territories. Its remote geographical location and climate conditions make it a complex place for human settlement. The objective is to describe the relationship between the agrarian structure and rural population decline in Chilean Patagonia. Taking a mixed methodological approach that combines the geohistorical review of settlement processes and the use of statistical procedures with census data, the presence of significant inequalities in the distribution of land and the accumulation of areas in large properties is discussed. The loss of rural population was identified, which may be driven by unequal access to land favoring concentration for extractive activities such as large-scale sheep farming, hydrocarbons and biofuels production. This prompts the exodus of young people to urban centers in search of work and education because land grabbing limits economic options, and rural depopulation reduces service coverage without timely responses from political institutions. This has caused the rural shrinkage in territories with demographic imbalances, with high aging and masculinization rates that hinder the repopulation of these areas, which have historically suffered from underpopulation. In conclusion, population strategies in these areas based on extractivism and a strict land ownership regime have not facilitated permanent human settlement but have instead complicated it more.

This article analyzes the socio-environmental conflicts around two large mining projects in Mazapil, Zacatecas: Peñasquito and Tayahua. The objective is to illustrate the complex connection of political relations between the different actors involved in these conflicts and how these relations evolve over time. The methodology focuses on participatory observation in Zacatecas and employs the technique of actor mapping. The results reveal that organized groups of local residents have taken diverse stances and strategies to confront mega-mining in Mazapil, from opposition to negotiation and collaboration. It is concluded that opposition, negotiation, and collaboration stances can have a tense coexistence within the same territory. Thus, the category of complex social-environmental conflicts of multiple postures is introduced to overcome the limitations associated with classification schemes that seek to categorize socio-environmental conflicts in accordance with the binomial of opposition versus negotiation. One limitation of this research is that it does not explore development alternatives on the local level; this is pending for future projects.