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Published
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Four key officials resign due to data scandal By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Víctor Morales Mora, the minister to the Presidency, announced his resignation Wednesday as deputies of the Congress continued to consider a possible motion of censure him. According to the government, the action of the deputies is because Morales' participated in a decree, now void, which created the Presidential Data Analysis Unit. According to Morales, said that as a result of the controversy there always will be an irremediable deterioration of his legitimacy as a driver of the dialogue between the government and the Congress. “The political reality tells me that, as a consequence of this motion of censure and the legislative investigation initiated, I will not have the necessary acceptance and communication with the members of the Legislative Power to successfully promote, the government's initiatives,” said Morales. In addition to Morales, two more key government executives submitted their resignation due to their connection with the data unit. One was Juan Alfaro, now former coordinator of the Presidential Legal Support Group. The second was Luis Daniel Soto-Castro, now former vice minister of Planning. Last week Luis Fernando Salazar-Muñoz, a legal advisor to the presidency, resigned.  Morales had to explain to the full legislature Monday his views about the legality of the creation of that unit for the analysis of civilian information. To the question of who put forth the idea of creating this unit to investigate civilian information, Morales replied that “a group of data analysis consultants promoted the needs of different institutions for products and results to work on bringing benefits for citizenship.” According to Morales, it will be the responsibility of the Courts of Justice to say if the creation and development of that unit violated the Constitution because, in his opinion, there has not been a violation. The Constitution addresses privacy. Morales told lawmakers that the special unit never had access to civilian data such as credit card information, salaries, bank accounts, judicial or medical background or of a fiscal or banking nature. Lawmakers met in an unusual extraordinary session to hear the minister. "There were no telephone interventions, surveillance cameras, or instant messaging interventions," Morales said. According to Morales, "exaggerations, speculations, suspicions and lies have been made," which he said, " served so that the differences rooted in society will contaminate a debate." "We recognized that it was a mistake not to explain in advance and sufficient work mechanisms to make clear absolute respect for everyone's privacy," Morales said. The disclosure that the president set up a special data collection unit became top news last week when the attorney general authorized a search of the Presidential House along with another ministry and some private homes. The president and seven others are facing possible crimes that have been listed as a personal data breach, abuse of authority and prevarication. The legal term prevarication or perverting the course of justice is a crime that consists of an authority issuing an arbitrary resolution in an administrative or judicial matter knowing that said resolution is unfair and contrary to the law. According to the government, the creation of the Presidential Unit for Data Analysis had the goal of helping with policy setting and decision making. On the same day of the searches, the legal adviser, Salazar-Muñoz, resigned his job at Presidential House. He was involved in creating the decree that Alvarado used to create the unit. According to the government, Salazar-Muñoz will continue his duties, ad-honorem, as a presidential commissioner for LGBTIQ population issues. LGBTQ stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and those who are questioning their sexual identity. Some have said that the unit operated in secret, something that the government has denied vigorously. According to the government, since March 2019 both the analyzers and the results of their work were presented publicly, on several occasions. The government insisted that "The data analysis team never operated in secret." "On the contrary, their profile was public, their products were posted on the Internet promptly, and it was formally presented to representatives of different sectors of society and public administration institutions," said the government in a public post on social media. Friday, the day of the searches, Alvarado said, "I understand that it is the way in which our democratic institutionality can make the truth known and give citizens confidence." He said in a video. "This issue must follow its due process. It is our will, desire and duty to expedite it." Attorney General Emilia Navas was present at the search on the Presidential House, which lasted until Friday night. The search at the Ministry of Planning began on Friday and finished on Saturday. Judicial agents seized computers, cell phones and documents for the case. Among the confiscated cell phones are the cell phone and computer assigned to Alvarado and the cell phone assigned to Morales. According to the investigation, the data unit had been working since May 2018. For more than a year and eight months, Diego Fernández-Montero, Alejandro Madrigal-Rivas and Andrés Villalobos-Villalobos served as data consultants for that department. "It is alleged that they formed a government unit to compile and analyze data for the alleged execution of public policies, apparently without any legal backing," said prosecutors in a statement. This group sought personal and sensitive data of citizens from different institutions, and Alvarado was aware of this, according to the prosecutor. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Alvarado, and his two ministers, Morales and Soto, the vice minister of Planning, issued a decree to continue developing this activity, although they knew that they were breaking the law. Given the controversy created by this decree, a few hours later, the president said that he had revoked the decree and with it, the data analysis unit. Alvarado, in the face of the controversy, said he ordered an investigation into the process of preparing the decree that he and his key authorities created and annulled. ----------------------------------- Have you heard of cases of illegal use of civilian data by the government authorities of your country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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