Mexican Attorney General Gets Microchip in Arm

novakreo writes "Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mexico's Attorney-General, now has a non-removable microchip in his arm, to track his movements and to give him access to a new crime database, according to Bloomberg. The article says that eventually around 160 Mexican officials will have a chip implanted." (Wired and CNN are both running the very similar Reuters report, too.)

His is a beautiful mind?

[YetAnotherName]

Does he really have one? [imdb.com]

Thoughts...

[mirko]

1. If he gets kidnapped, I guess I know what will be sent as a proof of his detention... I just hope he didn't have it implanted in his writing (and pizza^Wtortilla-eating) arm.
   
2. Is this the same chip that the Okinawese scholards are supposed to get ?
   

Re:Great...

[tehcyder]

I don't think any gang with the nerve to kidnap the Attorney General would worry too much about gouging his arm a little.

Re:Not necessarily

[Anonymous Coward]

So to use it, a perpetraitor would have to a) Kidnap him, b ) cut off his arm, c) surgically graft the thing into someone else with the same blood type.

How about just giving him an icepick lobotomy?

tracking?

[AmigaAvenger]

anyone else doubt the tracking ability of this thing? it would need both a fairly decent rx/antenna, and also a fairly good transmitter to get that info back out. since mexico isn't known for the incredible cell coverage, the incoming part would at least have to be gps. outgoing could be cell, but would be better served by satellite also. So they fit two satellite radio devices into this guy, complete with high gain antennas?

Re:Homeland Security masterplan

[orthogonal]

Homeland security soons [sic] hopes, through coersion [sic], fear, FUD, false warnings and money, to install trackable microchips in every Mexican by the year 2020.

I suppose you intended this a humor, but I fear you're right. I suspect Homeland Security -- or actually, the U.S. Treasury, may even be behind this.

From the article: The chip can't be removed, but will be deactivated after Macedo's term as attorney general expires, he said.

Now, did Mexico implant 160 government employees with non-removable chips at the behest of the Bush Administration?

According to Fox News [foxnews.com] (emphasis orthogonal's):

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration announced Tuesday [6 July 2004] that it has resumed sharing a wide range of financial information with Mexico with the aim of trying to catch money launderers (search), drug dealers and terrorist financiers.

In April, the United States had suspended sharing such information with Mexico, dealing a blow to cross-border crime fighting, which had resulted in the arrests of several high-profile drug lords.

The U.S. government did so after sensitive information provided by the [U.S.] Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network was leaked by Mexican officials. After the suspension, the network outlined a set of steps that Mexico should take before the United States would agree to resume information-sharing.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that Mexico has since taken steps to safeguard sensitive financial information it receives from the United States and other countries.

Were employees told to get the chip or to find another job? Especially bad is that the chip can be "deactivated" but not removed. Even deactivated, can it be detected? Conversely, if it can't be detected after detection because it has its, for instance, own power source which is turned off by deactivation -- unlike RFID chips which reflect the powered signal of a detector --, what do you do when the power runs out? Stick in yet another chip?

I realize the price of dealing with a superpower can be high, but I never imagined that it would be as high as treating your country's citizens like livestock [worldnetdaily.com].

This is terribly dehumanizing. Employees no longer just have an employee number, then have serial number like any animal on a feedlot, like any other cog in a machine -- and they don't just have it, they have it inside them. This is dystopian science fiction reified.

The chip is reminiscent of the terrible and also un-removable serial number tattoos [jewishvirtuallibrary.org] that Nazis forced on Jews and other concentration camp inmates.

And I'm sure certain Christians will recall the "Number of the Beast" [wikipedia.org] in the Christian Book of Revelation [wikipedia.org].

Regardless of the recollections that spring to mind, this is a horrible defeat for humans and for humanity, and a great victory for the omnipresent, omnipotent "Big Brother" [wikipedia.org] State.

Shout out against this now -- shout to the roof tops -- or in ten years you'll have to decide between getting a chip of your own or losing your job -- and in twenty years, some bland man from Homeland Security will tell you that for "security reasons, you understand" you have no choice at all to refuse a chip.

This will stop....

[mseeger]

Hi,

this will stop as soon as terrorist use RFID sensors to "trigger personalised" bombs.

A few months ago i was consultant for a goverment agency. They were plannng to install RFID chips into the cars of VIPs to save them from stopping at the parkhouse entrance of that agency. The goal was to avoid stops and deny snipers a shot. We were able to convince them that this was "not a good idea" ®SMALL>TM.

Regards, Martin

Re:Microchip in arm

[Anonymous Coward]

Terrorists will look for the scar, and cut the limb (arm,leg,head) before even saying they have him hostage.

Also, since this is Mexico we're talking about, the possibility of kidnapping is also very high.

A question why do you think you have the right to say to Mexicans (or any other country for that matter) they don't need this technology but we USians do? Because Mexico it's just the whore house of the US? Because they have less money than we do? It's THEIR prerrogative. It's THEIR choice, like it or not. If you want the chips implanted on civilians in Iraq, tell Ashcroft/Rumsfeld/Dubya, not Mexicans.

"Non-removable"

[alex_tibbles]

The article does not specify how it is made non-removable. Perhaps it reacts to air (but not blood etc!). Any ideas? Perhaps they just claim that to dissuade people chopping him up to get his security access...

well, the plan is for....

[zogger]

... everyone to get the chip obviously. They know in advance it would be resisted, so to mitigate that, they have to first chip the ones who will be enforcing the mass chipping. That means the paramilitary the overt military and the police, and they have to start at the top in those orgs so that the orders will be followed. Every step of the mass chipping has to be taken precisely. They scare the parents into chipping the youngest. They force the highest levels in government to get the chip. The police and military get it, so that they can say "what citizen, you rdfuse the chip? WE got the chip, so if we can do it, you can do it", along those lines. We've seen the plans coming soon to chip cops hands so that that chip will activate their "smart" guns, so only the cop can use them. Special forces in the military are the first to be getting the chip. Criminals will be getting the chip soon, to track them inside the jail, then outside forever. As they enforce the chips in these unique areas, eventually enough of the population will have them so that the rest may be mandated to get them, perhaps to tie in with a universal ID system.

One step at a time, how they do most things.

This topcop down there being chipped might be related to corruption in mexico, no idea, seems reasonable enough though. It is obvious that we are seeing an outright complete merging of the countries, any sort of "border" now is becoming moot, so perhaps they will be trying out the more extreme measures down in mexico first, to work out the bugs, see what sort of techniques are more efficient.

Re:tracking?

[zogger]

Well, the article says as he goes about the city. I imagine the chip readers are installed at the doors to various governmental buildings. Between that and tracking his official car, they can follow his whereabouts pretty effectively.

As to range, I keep reading people saying it's only a very short distance, yet I have heard they have some good rfid now they can place on goods inside of steel locked containers and read them effectively outside the container. That's decent range and power, and I am sure they probably have much better ones that aren't common public knowledge yet. And yes, using the skin as the antenna and part of the transmitting power source would be effective, you would imagine.

implantable batteries

[zogger]

using that as a search term, you get 18,800 hits on google. [google.com] And here is a New Scientist reference [newscientist.com] about rechargeable implantable batteries, that are recharged from inside the body using your body heat. This is a small copy/paste from that article: "The "biothermal battery" under development by Biophan Technologies of West Henrietta, will generate electricity using arrays of thousands of thermoelectric generators built into an implantable chip. These generators exploit the well-known thermocouple effect, in which a small voltage is generated when two of the junctions between two dissimilar materials are kept at different temperatures."

Seems like the "limitations" of range and power to RFID tags that people kept saying would make them impractical for mass universal chipping are being overcome at a fast rate.

Now THAT'S a Switch

[Rob Carr]

The article says that eventually around 160 Mexican officials will have a chip implanted."

The usual FUD is that the politicians would get all the citizens implanted with chips, and that they would be able to spy on our every movement.

Mexico has come up with the concept of implanting the politicians so that the citizens can spy on their every movement.

This is a definite improvement, if you ask me.

But how many US officials have the chip?..

[Chineseyes]

But how many US officials have the chip? My guess is many of them probably do and its simply not public knowledge. I would be shocked if The Dubya himself did not have something even more powerful implanted in him in the event of one of many worst case scenerio's where he could be be kidnapped.

Although I agree that implanting people with chips is pretty dehumanizing, if you agree to a particular job you have to agree with the particular terms of employment, no matter how absurd, if you don't like it then find a new line of work its that simple. Those gov't employess have an option to do this so comparing their situation to the serial number tatoos on jews in concentration camps is almost laughable.

And before anyone can even think to say "Well then the US gov't wouldn't cooperate with them" and "The US gov't is forcing them to do this". I will once again say everyone has a choice, The Mexican government can choose not to work with the US in sharing intelligence but there are consequences to every choice. I am sure the Mexican government and the Mexican officials themselves weighed the consequences of every particular course of action carefully so if they choose to implant their officials with chips the consequences of those decisions fall upon the Mexican government itself and no one else.

Re:Bush & Mexico

[Abreu]

...And he supports NAFTA, which most people would agree benefits Mexico at least slightly more than the U.S.

Absolutely not! NAFTA benefits the US far more than it benefits Mexico. The US has been blocking a lot of mexican products and services from entering the country because of protectionist lobbying.

Just one example: USian truck drivers can enter Mexico without any trouble since day one of NAFTA, Mexican truck drivers are being blocked from entering the US because of lobbying from the teamsters union. Therefore, both US and Mexican producers trying to sell products to either side have to hire USian transports...

Of course nobody has recourse on the WTO against the US, since the WTO is US-based and has never decided against the US in a trade dispute... Combined with the fact that mexican politicians would never do anything to upset Uncle Sam...

Re:Mark of the beast and all that jazz...

[bbobjoe]

Incorrect. The NT with exception of very early Bibles has been translated ONCE. I have a copy of the Critical Greek NT. That flags Manuscripts and their age. Most modern Bibles NIV, NASB, etc... Are heavily based on Codex Siniaticus (4th Century), Codex Vaticanus, and Codex A (5th Century) from Egypt. And various fragments from ealier. Translators do NOT keeping copying other works. The NIV was not a KJV copy. In fact the KJV is based on late Greek Manuscripts from the 11 - 15th Centuries. Although they agree about 99% statisically They NIV translators went back the said Manuscripts and translated. And it does mean right hand and forehead. Only 1-1.5% of the text of OT or NT is disputed and none of it affects any doctrine.

Regarding Mark of the Beast

[Landaras]

Everytime a topic like this comes up, a lot of people mention the Mark of the Beast or other references to Revelation.

Many are jokes, a few feign seriousness, and there are sometimes one or two that appear to be truly righteously indigant (on Christian grounds) in regards to the technology.

I personally don't touch eschatology [wikipedia.org], as I have better things to do with my time, but I thought I would repeat (or rather, paraphrase) the insight of a non-Christian poster of several months ago.

Why do you fundamentalists get up in arms about this supposed 'Mark of the Beast' or that intepreted 'Sign of the End Times?'

You say that you want Jesus to come back, but your messiah said himself that he won't return until these things come to pass.

Stupid Christians. No End Times = No Return of Christ. You shouldn't be fighting this technology.

You should be cheering this on.

Not making any judgment calls (as a Christian myself), but thought I would repeat the insight for the benefit of all.

- Neil Wehneman

Re:Great...

[SEWilco]

being able to track him no matter where he went

Does someone think that this chip can be read from further than two meters away?

Re:Regarding Mark of the Beast

[el_gregorio]

Basically, the fundamentalists oppose the "mark of the beast" because they believe those who allow themselves to be branded with it will go to Hell. the Bible claims this mark will be mandatory in order to participate in commerce. so, the fundamentalists believe there will come a time when you must accept the mark and a fate in hell, or reject it and be persecuted and unable to live in society.

Not Sure the Story is True

[monk]

While he may have said these things in an interview for whatever reasons the claims sound a little odd to me. He claims that he, "...can also be located at any moment anywhere I am," with this system. If you think about that claim he's saying this chip somehow communicates with receivers which can track him. It can't be a passive RFID [wikipedia.org] chip as their would have to be readers everywhere to power it, so we might assume it's an active chip. Where is the network of readers in place to track him all over Mexico? Maybe we can assume it uses cell towers. Does mexico have the cell location technology in place in the towers yet? Also, if you have a cell phone you have probably charged it at least every few days. With just an ID to transmit, let's assume his battery lasts longer, maybe weeks. Is he inserting a battery in his arm every few weeks? I don't think so. He might be charging the thing through a pair of coupled coils [mit.edu]? Even so, wet tissues and skin don't make for a great environment for a transponder. That's why we don't implant tags in cattle among other reasons. The tags in small pets can only be read within a few inches.

I think the current technology is just not up to this claim. Maybe the statement is an anti-kidnapping, psychological warfare tactic.

Technically possible? I don't think so.

[Gray]

I agree. It's almost certainly 99% BS. Maybe there is an RFID-type chip in his arm for accessing that database, that's fairly moot. There are lots of exciting way to protect databases and none of them are 100%.

The tracing Mexico wide aspect is the tip off. Although everybody wants to think otherwise, I'm fairly sure that's just not technically possible.

Passive RFID style chips are good up to 9 meters max. Even at 100 times that, it'd be next to useless for nation wide tracking.

You can't stick a transponder of any decent power inside a person without a power supply.

It's a bluff trying keep him unkidnapped and privacy advocate types off his back.

Turn him into a video game

[coinreturn]

Tracking him with a website would be great fun (a-la the Sims). Also handy for any potential assassin.

Re:This will stop....

[blackest_k]

so thinking about this if an rfid is implanted in a tyre or other car part or maybe an item of clothing it would be possible to design a smart bomb that would only blow when a particular Rf tag (person) came into range.

or how about an rftag smart minefield.
say each us serviceman has an rf tag on his dog tag then a mine field could be laid which would be inhibited by the presence of the rf tag and totally lethal to the enemy whoever that might be.
or conversely triggered. of course the mines could be rf tagged as well so you can collect them up later.