Redefining the concept of property in Latin America: the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 and the Gas War of 2003 in Bolivia

In recent years, the Western European concept of private property has been questioned, and the use of land has been at the center of a new redefinition of property and power relations. In Latin America, this challenge has assumed a particular form of struggle, developed along ethnic and cultural lines. In particular, the study is focused on the use and customs of the Indigenous people present in the territory, with a reconstruction of their conditions throughout Latin American history. This thesis describes, on the one hand, the development of private property and, on the other hand, the development of an alternative way of conceiving possession, namely the communal form of ownership. In particular, two cases of study are presented: the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 and the Gas War of 2003, both in Bolivia. With reference to these two cases, the work analyses the concrete possibility of redefining the power and property relations in a multicultural context. Keywords: Property, Cochabamba Water War, Gas War, Latin America, Indigenous people.