The so-called “Hacking Law,” which targets the illegal installation of video surveillance cameras, primarily in the service of organized crime, does not seek to inhibit freedom of expression, but rather to combat the criminal organizations that operate with the help of these systems.
For the head of the General Secretariat of Government, J. Guadalupe Torres Sánchez, the recently passed legislation is a key tool for preserving security throughout the state while combating organized crime.
This comes after a constitutional challenge was filed before the State Human Rights Commission against the aforementioned implementation of the Law “for being ambiguous and seeking to criminalize investigative journalism and activism.”
He described these criticisms as “misinformation” and “biased positions,” while asserting that they do not represent any setback for freedoms in the state, but rather a means of continuing to safeguard the exercise of freedom of expression and information, as long as their objective is not the pursuit of illegal activities.
Nor does it violate people’s human rights, the state official emphasized.
He added that this was already a “Big Brother” operating throughout the state. “The reform to the State Penal Code seeks to dismantle these surveillance networks of criminal groups,” he insisted.
Finally, he highlighted the positive results achieved after the dismantling of cameras throughout the state, as well as the arrest of a person disguised as a Teléfonos de México employee in the Huasteca Potosina region who was installing these devices, allegedly for a criminal group.
Activists ask the CEDH to take the case to the SCJN
The general director of Cambio de Ruta, Luis González Lozano formally submitted a request to the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) to file a constitutional action against the reform that criminalizes the crime of “halconeo” in San Luis Potosí.
He recently submitted a letter to the CEDH requesting that, in the exercise of its constitutional and legal powers, it file a constitutional action against Decree 0207, published in the Official State Gazette “Plan de San Luis” on May 28, 2025, which amends Article 343 and adds Article 293 Quater to the Penal Code of the State of San Luis Potosí, criminalizing the crime of “halconeo.”
His request is based on the fact that, according to Article 105, Section II, subparagraph g) of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and Article 60 of the Regulatory Law of Sections I and II of Article 105 of the Constitution, Human Rights Commissions are empowered to bring unconstitutionality actions against general laws that they consider to violate human rights.
He considered that this reform criminalizes journalism and citizen surveillance carried out by human rights defenders, among others.
He added that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) had already declared a similar law unconstitutional, as this reform also violates freedom of expression. For this reason, he warned, these types of circumstances cannot be tolerated at the state level. “We cannot allow them to criminalize our right to monitor.”
Source: oem
