The obvious backwards: Informal monitoring (halconeo) and the nature of secrecy in Mexico

Abstract

In this article I carry out a theoretical investigation, with elements of the analysis-synthesis method and comparative Law, on some twenty judicial documents — from local and federal official Mexican sources — that deal with “hawking” (halconeo), a conduct of informal surveillance for organized crime, carried out mainly by young people. After selecting and classifying these open sources, I identify two ideas that underlie them: the delimitation of polluting spaces and the use of objects with supposed extraordinary capacities to condemn their owner. The result is that the legal figure of hawking can illustrate a way in which the Mexican institutions are turning upside down what we would consider as evident. This, in turn, supposes that ambiguity spreads from the official legal discourse about what is true or false. However, this also allows us to describe the idea of secrecy that some instances of the Mexican State have.