Colombian police have stolen private information of 31 million Colombians, said electoral authorities Tuesday
National Registry director Anthony Cotrino Sossa lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office that “high impact” information including biographical, residential and fingerprint details of citizens, along with information pertaining to membership of the armed forces and police, was removed from the Registry without the appropriate warrant.
According to the election official, two officers arrived at the Registrar on Thursday with a warrant to copy information related to an investigation into alleged election irregularities in the southwest Cauca department.
However, the policemen removed two hard-drives containing the personal information of 31 million voters from the Registry Offices to the Cyber Police Division and did not return the disks until Monday morning.
In his letter to the Prosecutor General, Cotrino wrote that police did not respond to the electoral authorities’ objection to the taking of the voters’ private information.
The director said he is wating for the Prosecutor General to move quickly as the episode “puts serious risk on the country’s democratic process.”
