Project of Citizen Identity Card and Institutional Design of Security Policy in México

In Mexico, the Personal Identification Card has been a controversial theme since it was first mentioned in 2009. The official objective of the Card was to procure the unified identification of all citizens, concentrating the data that forms their legal identity, linked with biometric data in order to incorporate fingerprint registry, face and iris of every Mexican.

News of the project gave footing to diverse controversies, for one part, it was warned about the duplication of work invested in the expedition of a citizen identity card, since it was argued that the current Voter Card (expedited by the Federal Electoral Institute, IFE) serves as one of the main identifications in the country and that the possession of the unique identification card could discourage the inscription of the citizens in the voter rolls and could negatively impact the influx of citizens to the elections.

The second issue was of an administrative character and turned around toward what instances of public and private character would be the ones to carry out the management and control of the administration of the card. Linked to the administrative issues, another group of themes was the possession and protection of personal data.

In 2013 the Identity Card ICM project was included in the public agenda as a result of the recent acts of violence and insecurity in the country. The main argument is that a new Identity Card will ensure the identification of criminals. This issue is going to be central in the public debate because concerns the privacy and protection of personal data. In the case of Mexico, the main debate is about the weekness of the governability, the lack of moral authority of the government and the enviroment of social discontent in which this new changes are being constructed.