Mario Redondo, legislator and presidential candidate for the Christian Democratic Alliance (ADC), denounced on Wednesday that the executive president of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), Carlos Obregón, made a decision that seriously jeopardizes the confidentiality of information of all Costa Ricans: transferring all the logical security personnel of the network to the administrative area, under the command of Juan de la Cruz Brenes.
The legislator drew attention to the fact that the highly specialized personnel, with international certifications that guarantee security in the handling of information, will be headed by an official who has already been questioned for espionage.
The technicians and engineers who will be transferred carry out analysis of network traffic and monitoring of people. Their inquiries are made at the request of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), a judge or competent judicial authority. They also provide support to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), banks and other institutions.
The legislator questioned that this personnel of the operative area be transferred to the administrative area and especially that their boss from next week on will be Juan de la Cruz Brenes.
Redondo indicated that this could be violating Costa Ricans data, since it would facilitate the espionage of people without judicial decision.
The legislator recalled that the official who was given these powers was questioned for having a kind of DIS in the ICE and for having given the order to “spy on a legislator.”
This official was questioned in 2015 in a legislative commission that investigated the use and manipulation of the information obtained by the intelligence bodies of the country.
Redondo is concerned that the transfer of personnel and the increase of power for the official occur at a time when the election campaign begins and at a time when there are allegations about cases of corruption that involve the hierarchs of the three branches of the Republic.