Taming the Tiger

Chapter 2, “Taming the Tiger,” presents an initial description of the Registry of Mobile Telephone Users (RENAUT), Citizen Identity Card (CEDI), and Public Registry of Vehicles (REPUVE) with reference to broader trends in surveillance studies and Mexican history. The chapter argues that while the RENAUT, the CEDI, and the REPUVE resemble programs described by surveillance scholars elsewhere, they are most noteworthy for their focus on the materiality of communication, identification, and mobility. Authorities’ efforts to administer these activities are not new; they date back to the Spanish Conquest and have served over the course of Mexican history to “coproduce” the state. The appearance of the RENAUT, the CEDI, and the REPUVE today, however, speaks to a crisis of governance whereby the vibrancy of society has outgrown the state’s ability to manage it, resulting in increased levels of insecurity and the federal government’s turn to surveillance technologies.