Prosecutors raid Costa Rican president’s offices in data privacy investigation

FAN Editor
FILE PHOTO: Costa Rica's President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, listens to Rodolfo Piza at the Presidential house in San Jose
FILE PHOTO: Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, listens to Rodolfo Piza, Minister of the Presidency, after he announced his resignation, at the Presidential house in San Jose, Costa Rica July 29, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate

February 28, 2020

By Alvaro Murillo

SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Prosecutors raided the headquarters of Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado on Friday as part of an investigation into possible data privacy violations by the government, the public ministry said.

Alvarado and seven other high-level officials were being investigated for violating personal data laws and abusing their authority in creating a data analysis unit aimed at helping the president’s policy-making decisions.

Alvarado’s spokeswoman said the president denied the charges and would cooperate with the investigation. He was not in his offices at the time of the raid, she added.

Rights groups and lawmakers criticized the Presidential Unit for Data Analysis when an official document formalizing the unit last week said it would have access to confidential information.

In response, Alvarado said there had been an error in the decree and that it would be changed.

Even so, the Attorney General, after receiving citizen complaints, opened an investigation into the president and his aides.

“They formed a government unit to compile and analyze data for the supposed execution of public policy, it seems, without any legal basis,” said a statement from the public ministry, which oversees the prosecutor’s office.

“It is presumed that, among the work of this group, they had ordered the request of personal and sensitive citizen data from different institutions, and it is believed that Alvarado had knowledge of this,” the statement said.

Four houses were also searched on Friday, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo in San Jose, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Grant McCool)

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Image released in disappearance of girl feared to be victim of sex trafficking

Relisha Rudd, then 8 years old, went missing in Washington, D.C., in 2014. February 28, 2020, 4:45 PM 6 min read Six years after 8-year-old Relisha Rudd vanished in Washington, D.C., the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released a new age-progression image for what she may look […]