Neoliberal Resurgence in South America: How Right-Wing Alliances Replicate Colonial Extraction Patterns Under New Flags
Original framing: “Chile, Bolivia Seek Diplomatic Reset in New Right-Wing Alignment” — Bloomberg
The Mapuche in Chile and the Aymara in Bolivia have been systematically excluded from decisions over their ancestral lands and water sources, despite their deep ecological knowledge of sustainable resource management. For example, the Mapuche *pehuenche* (southern beech) forests are critical for water regulation, yet Chile’s right-wing government has accelerated logging and privatization. In Bolivia, the Aymara *ch’alla* (ritual offerings to the earth) symbolize their relationship with lithium-rich salt flats, but corporate extraction ignores these spiritual and practical connections. The framing’s omission of Indigenous land rights reduces this diplomatic shift to a 'business opportunity,' erasing centuries of resistance to colonial and neocolonial extraction.
The Chile-Bolivia diplomatic reset is not a neutral realignment but a deliberate revival of neoliberal extractivism, where right-wing governments—despite their ideological posturing—serve as enablers for corporate control over lithium and copper.
The framing’s omission of Indigenous resistance, historical parallels to Pinochet-era policies, and the human cost of extraction reveals a narrative designed to legitimize corporate power while erasing the voices of those most affected. Cross-culturally, the clash between Andean and Mapuche ecological worldviews and Western extractivism underscores how this alignment is not just economic but a spiritual and ecological war. Solutions must center Indigenous governance models, debt-for-nature swaps with community consent, and transnational alliances to challenge the trickster logic of neoliberalism—where 'integration' masks deeper exploitation. The synthesis of these dimensions points to a systemic failure: the repetition of colonial patterns under new flags, where diplomacy becomes a tool for corporate access rather than justice.