Short answer. Yes. Article 869 expressly allows a testator to leave the ownership of property to one person and its usufruct — the right to use it and enjoy its fruits — to another. The arrangement is valid, splitting the naked ownership from the beneficial use between two different beneficiaries.
What the law says
A provision whereby the testator leaves to a person the whole or part of the inheritance, and to another the usufruct, shall be valid.
Civil Code, Article 869 — Successive Usufruct. Read the full provision →
What Article 869 permits
Article 869 provides that a provision whereby the testator leaves to a person the whole or part of the inheritance, and to another the usufruct, shall be valid. Ownership and use, which usually travel together, can be separated by will. One person — the naked owner — takes the thing itself; another — the usufructuary — takes the right to use it and to receive what it produces, the rents, the harvests, the income, for as long as the usufruct lasts. A common use is to leave a house to the children in ownership while giving a surviving spouse the usufruct for life.
What each of them actually holds
The split is real, and it shapes what each may do. The usufructuary enjoys the property and its fruits but must preserve its substance — he uses it, he does not consume or waste it, and he returns it when the usufruct ends. The naked owner holds ownership stripped of present enjoyment; he cannot disturb the usufructuary's use, but his ownership becomes full again once the usufruct is over. Neither can simply override the other. This is why the arrangement suits a testator who wants to provide for one person's lifetime needs while keeping the asset itself in the family.
Successive usufructs, and the limit on them
Article 869 also lets a testator give the usufruct to several persons in turn — one after another rather than all at once. But that successive arrangement is not open-ended; the Code borrows the same ceiling it sets for fideicommissary substitutions, so a chain of usufructuaries cannot run indefinitely down the generations. The law permits a controlled succession of enjoyment, not a perpetual one that ties up the property forever. If you intend the usufruct to pass from one person to the next, the number and identity of those persons must stay within that limit, or the later links in the chain will fail.
Getting the will to say it cleanly
If this is what you want, the will should name the naked owner and the usufructuary separately and clearly, and fix how long the usufruct runs — the usufructuary's life is the commonest term, but it can be a fixed period. Spell out whether it covers the whole estate or a specific property, since the article allows either. Where you plan successive usufructs, keep them within the permitted degree and name the persons in order. Precise drafting matters, because a vague split between ownership and use is a frequent source of conflict between the person living in the property and the person who owns it.