Pesquisa, Pesquisador

Pesquisador, Pesquisa, the investigation of a district or minor official. A pesquisa was a special investigation of the activities and behavior of a district official, such as a corregidor, alcalde mayor, or other low-ranking functionary, that was initiated by an audiencia and its presiding officer after receiving reports of misconduct in office. The commissioned individual conducting a pesquisa was known as a pesquisador or, at times, juez de comisión. Unless he was an audiencia judge, the pesquisador usually only reported the results to the audiencia, which would then resolve the matter. If the official investigated had abused his judicial responsibilities, the pesquisador had the authority to suspend or jail him pending final resolution of the case by the audiencia.

See alsoAudiencia .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, 4 vols. (1681; repr. 1973), libro VII, título I.

Clarence H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (1947), pp. 156-157.

Additional Bibliography

Barrios, Feliciano. El gobierno de un mundo: Virreinatos y audiencias en la América hispánica. Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha: Fundación Rafael del Pino, 2004.

Hawkins, Timothy. José De Bustamante and Central American Independence: Colonial Administration in an Age of Imperial Crisis. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

Sanciñena Asurmendi, Teresa. La audiencia en México en el reinado de Carlos III. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1999.

                                Mark A. Burkholder