Coloniality, Necropolitical Masculinity and Femicide Violence: The Case of War on Huachicol in Mezquital Valley, Hidalgo State, Mexico

Abstract

As a result of the covid-19 pandemic, there is a significant increase in the rate of femicides and disappearances of women in Mezquital Valley (Hidalgo State). The ongoing health con- tingency, the War on Huachicol and the socio-environmental problem in this region -one of the most polluted in the world- give account for the colonial context that frames this policy of death (Mbembe, 2006). Thus, in this paper we return to the approach of the Modern/Colonial Gender System (Lugones, 2008) to explain the configuration of a necropolitical masculin- ity (Valencia, 2010) based on the figure of huachicolero, to whom the sovereign right to kill subjects and have nature under his control is conferred. The result: femicide violence as a direct effect of colonial gender imaginaries in which women are differentiated, from gender and race categories. As part of nature, women are considered appropriable, exploitable and damageable due to a pedagogy of cruelty (Segato, 2014a)