Work

Inverted walls and displaced risk: human rights limits of Chile’s trench in the Tacna–Arica border corridor

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: In March 2026, Chile began excavating trenches near Chacalluta in the Tacna–Arica corridor under the Border Shield plan. This Perspective examines whether this infrastructure satisfies legality, strict necessity and proportionality under human rights law. It triangulates scholarship on transfrontier mobility, securitization, crimmigration and the Chile–Bolivia ‘inverted wall’ with official, legal, humanitarian and contemporaneous reporting. It argues that a trench beside a historically integrated urban corridor may redirect residual movement toward less visible and more hazardous routes. Existing evidence does not establish that the 2026 works have already caused particular injuries or protection denials; it makes displaced risk foreseeable. Ex ante review must therefore distinguish vehicular control from migration and crime-control objectives, compare localized physical alternatives, and require humanitarian and child-protection safeguards.

Source: Frontiers in Political Science

DOI: 10.3389/fpos.2026.1846645

Authors: Ilda Nadia Mónica de la Asunción Pari-Bedoya, Alfonso Renato Vargas-Murillo, Roger Herminio Daga Palacios

Institutions: Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, Private University of the North, Jorge Basadre Grohmann National University

Language: English

Topic: Border Security and International Relations

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,418