Surveillance and information: The north and south connection

The emergence of violence in Latin America during the last decade has caused the implementation of different surveillance technologies with the goal of reinforcing public security policies, in particular, the control of the population through the use of national identity cards. These technologies have been imported from the Global North, in particular, although not exclusively from the United States, which opens up the possibility that information is transmitted together from southern countries to the northern ones helping to guarantee a supposed hemispheric security. In this sense, two dynamics are analyzed. The first one is directed at establishing the criteria that are used to build a citizenship identity in Latin America, especially its effects in a contextual framework for the shortage of citizen’s rights before the State. The second one has to do with legal regulations which guarantee the flow of information from identity cards from countries of the Latin American region toward countries that transfer the technology and the “know how” of surveillance. Understanding both dynamics allows us to realize in which way they are defining the logic of surveillance and democracy in Latin America.