Tiempo, riesgo y sacrificio: límites estructurales del reconocimiento constitucional de lo sagrado en tres territorios nahuas del estado de Puebla

This work examines the structural limits of the constitutional recognition of “sacred places” following the 2024 reform to Article 2, drawing on three Nahua cases in Puebla: San Andrés Cholula, Santiago Xalitzintla (Popocatépetl), and Santa María Coapan. I argue that, although the State incorporates the sacred into the legal framework, it preserves colonial logics that organize territory through regimes of urban time, risk-securitization policies, and practices that turn specific spaces into sacrifice zones. These dynamics generate direct tensions with the rhythms, obligations, and forms of care that communities uphold to protect their territories. When communal practices question strategic projects, authorities prioritize the continuity of those projects and deploy mechanisms of criminalization that recast territorial care as an offense. In response to this scenario, I propose the notion of a “law of the bond” to describe communal juridicities grounded in responsibility, memory, and reciprocity—juridicities that assert living sovereignties and demand forms of state protection that recognize relational territories rather than merely administrable spaces.