Accumulation by dispossession and the myth of costa rican democratic exceptionalism: indigenous dispossession as a structural feature of agrarian concentration

Abstract

This research examines the historical evolution of the indigenous struggle for land in Costa Rica, analyzing how the dispute over indigenous territorial rights expresses ‒with specific colonial and ethnic mediations‒ the class struggle sustaining agrarian capital. It challenges the «White Legend» of Costa Rican democratic exceptionalism from a perspective that does not limit itself to the empirical-descriptive refutation already established by critical historiography, but rather categorially reconstructs why land concentration ‒a Gini of 0.7258 in the southern region, up to 0.9 for Guanacastecan cattle, and nearly three quarters of the peasantry landless‒ is not an anomaly but a structural function of capital accumulation. Through the reconstruction of fundamental political categories from historical materialism and empirical evidence, and through a regionally differentiated examination of Huetar, Maleku, Bribri-Cabécar and Brörán dispossession, a persistent tension between legislation and reality is revealed: indigenous communities face continuous challenges in preserving their territories against the expansive needs of capital. The systematic violation of indigenous territorial rights, within a context of extreme agrarian concentration that contradicts the national democratic self-image, demonstrates that non-indigenous civil society participation is essential to defend rights fundamentally irreconcilable with accumulation needs.