Huachicol
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Huachicol (sometimes spelled guachicol) is a Spanish-language slang term used to refer to adulterated alcoholic beverages or to gasoline or diesel that has been adulterated or stolen.[1][2]
People who engage in the illegal activity of stealing and adulterating fuel and alcoholic beverages in Mexico are known as huachicoleros. In the 2020s, the term huachicol fiscal has been used to describe the illegal fuel trade in which gasoline and diesel are smuggled into the country through land and maritime borders, evade taxes, and are then sold unlawfully.[3]
According to the studies of Arturo Ortega Morán, a Mexican writer specialized in the origin of the words and expressions of Spanish, the word huachicol comes from the Latin word aquati, which means watered down. During the sixteenth century the term aquati referred to a technique used in painting, which consists in diluting the pigments in water. When this word was used in France it became "gouache", retaining its meaning. Later, when the name of this technique arrived in Mexico during the 19th century, people used to refer to it as painting "a la guach".[4]
At that time the tequila and brandy vendors who diluted the drinks with water to obtain more profits, they began to be named with the appellation of guachicolero or huachicolero. Similarly, they began to be called fuel traders who lowered their gasoline or oil with water to achieve better profits. Currently the word huachicolero is used to denote a person dedicated to theft, illegal transfer and sale of hydrocarbons.[4]
It could also derive from the tlachiqueros, people in charge of scraping the maguey and then extracting the mead.