Alfredo Rodríguez analyses the experience of technical assistance of his institution to the “pobladores” of two big seizures of land experienced during the military regime, in a context of political opening in a repressive media. He shows the political importance of the land seizure, the alternatives open to the technical assistance institution and the role and alternatives the pobladores as well as the State had in this key event for the movimiento de pobladores in Santiago in 1983. Through a combinatory analysis of the alternatives he reaches several conclusions. The main one is that through this seizure government authorities were forced to acknowledge popular demands and offer out of market site and services solutions which would have been very difficult to obtain otherwise.