Nicaraguan president launches investigation of sales of citizen's information to U.S. agencies

Sunday, April 13, 2003
(04-13) 09:55 <a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-PDT MANAGUA,
Nicaragua (AP) --

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos ordered his Interior Ministry Sunday to investigate how a U.S. company obtained government files on Nicaraguan citizens, information that was later passed on to the U.S. immigration service and other agencies.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that Atlanta, Georgia-based ChoicePoint Inc. said it bought official registry files from subcontractors in Nicaragua, as well as Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The company has refused to name the sellers or say where those parties obtained the data.

"In the United States these are very serious offenses," Bolanos said of the apparent unauthorized disclosure of private information such as drivers' license registries, "and if there are severe penalties there, there could also be the same here, if we find someone committing this crime."

Bolanos told reporters "the Interior Ministry is investigating this to see if it is true, to see if a crime is being committed, and if so, to stop it."

Interior Minister Eduardo Urcuyo said he knew little as yet about the scheme. "The truth is that I don't know if this is an established business, or if these people are registered in this country to sell information about personal credit history, drivers' licenses or tax rolls."

The story also made headline news in Mexico, where Choicepoint reportedly got hold of voter registration lists.

Victor Aviles, the spokesman for Mexico's officials Federal Electoral Institute, said such data sales were against the law, especially if they came from someone within the institute. "If someone sold it, he is committing a crime," Aviles said.

Over the past 18 months, the U.S. government has bought access to data on hundreds of millions of residents of 10 Latin American countries -- apparently without their consent or knowledge -- allowing myriad federal agencies to track foreigners entering and living in the United States.

ChoicePoint collects the information abroad and sells it to U.S. government officials in three dozen agencies, including federal immigration investigators who've used it to arrest illegal immigrants.

While laws vary from country to country, privacy experts in Latin America question whether the sales of national citizen registries have been legal. They say government data are often sold clandestinely by individual government employees.

Most of the files appear to originate in agencies that register voters or issue national IDs and drivers licenses. The company's contracts require data sellers to declare they obtained the information legally.