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The article analyzes the governmental measures implemented by Chile and El Salvador during the pandemic to manage the repatriation of their nationals and resident citizens who were stranded abroad due to the closing of borders, a decision imposed by governments worldwide as a measure to contain the health crisis generated by COVID-19 in their territories. The restriction to the freedom of movement of people across borders caused in several countries of the region an additional humanitarian drama to the devastating effects of the global health crisis, so this paper examines this problem from the coverage given by the Latin American media to the repatriation processes of Chileans and Salvadorans as case studies, through a qualitative documentary analysis of the news about the main difficulties and consequences generated by this humanitarian drama. An important conclusion of the study recognizes the relevance of the administrative, logistic, and communicational capacity that the diplomatic missions of Latin American countries should develop, as well as the preeminence of human rights in international relations in order to face more responsibly the migratory crisis caused by the closing of borders for sanitary reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border areas have been and remain present in public discourse because of growing concern around the spaces they entail for the transfer of humans and goods. Taking this as a starting point, this paper discusses some analytical frameworks related to the notion of borders in order to locate the current discussion. On the one hand, it shows the tendency to associate borders with a limit marking the sovereignty of states and determining who is inside and who is outside. On the other, the focus on the national ignores the daily life unfolding in the border areas, whose constitution also demarcates conflict spaces. Using the Tarapacá border (Chile) as a case study, the analysis concludes that the functioning of the border acts as a heterogeneous architecture. It is also observed how it has changed in materiality and operates as a multilocal exclusion/inclusion mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The border is a place of encounter for geopolitical and literary accounts as well as historiographical and anthropological ones, but also is, like the doors guarded by the god Janus, a location where the dichotomy between control and integration--the paradox of globalization-- is apparent. All this may allow an informal measurement of relations between neighbors. This article will discuss the implementation, over 30 years, of border controls at the Chilean-Bolivian frontier through the deployment of one of the most aggressive policies seen in teichopolitics: mine-laying that resulted in a virtual wall between both countries. F inally, the reasons that led Chile in recent years to remove mines and reduce its control of the border will be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research addresses the drug trade in Tamarugal Province for the years 2003 to 2010, through an analysis of crime statistics from the police (Chilean Carabineros and Police Investigations Unit), and penal system institutions (National Prison Service and the Office of the Prosecutor). The analysis of the drug trade situates the drug trafficking issue in the international context of globalization and in a border area emergency that does not necessarily correspond to the traditional definition of the nation state. The research proposes to situate this issue of criminal offence in the context of the international legal order, focusing on the specific characteristics of the Tarapacá region and its condition as a trans border territory. It also proposes to situate this issue in a regional context, as well as in terms of the efforts of the international order to control illegal trafficking of drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "The Andes mountain range: a wall or a gateway? Views of one's neighbors across space", we have considered how the changes in perception of a geographical feature, such as the Andes mountain range from Colonial times to the present day, shed light on the ways we see the world. As a matter of fact, generalizations on particular features of various social identities can be drawn on the social groups' relationship with geographical space. Such a relationship has been tackled by anthropology as well as other fields of study which have dealt with the interplay between identity and geographical space. Our interest is to focus on the types of significance assigned to the Andes mountain range on both sides of it in certain time periods. The significance of the range as a wall is one of several views circulating in literary and non-literary writing. The relevance of this view can be best appreciated in terms of international relations between Argentina and Chile as bordering countries. However, other types of state-space representation relationships have been put forth which have promoted closer integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]