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.)

Comments

Reboot?

[FuzzyShrimp]

Well, do you kick hin in the ass to reboot the thing?

Microchip in arm

[Avada Kedavra]

Civilian contractors in Iraq need this technology
not Mexican Attorney Generals.

yes but..

[Mr. Smokey Mcpot]

can you run linux on Him? Now that's what I call an Embedded solution.

Re:Can't be removed?

[dr_dank]

I suddenly have a mental image of a Mexican criminal trying to get into a government installation carrying an arm...

If he doesn't get in there, he can just go to a convenience store to commit an "armed" robbery.

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 (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.

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 that Nazis forced on Jews and other concentration camp inmates.

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

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" 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.

Re:Great...

[Anonymous Coward]

what i want to know is these mexicans that are getting micro chips, will they be receiving some micro salsa to go with that?

bada boom crash!

Re:But how many US officials have the chip?..

[Rich0]

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.

I dunno. Suppose your kids are starving and the only job in town has an indentured servitude clause in their contract. Should that be legally permissible?

You might suggest that the slave employer is at least taking care of his slaves instead of letting them die. However, I'd argue that it is immoral to allow somebody to die of starvation at your doorstep if you have the ability to render immediate aid to prevent this. Sure, I can't be the savior of the world, but if I see a man bleeding to death on the sidewalk of my house and don't even call an ambulence, what does that say of my character?

Some employment conditions should be illegal simply becuase they are inhuman. Employers have a tremendous amount of power - particularly over those without highly in-demand talents or skills. You or I may be able to design computer software or something of high value. Some people are working hard just to be a Walmart greeter. Most normal people are somewhere in-between.

Workplaces are something to be regualted for certain. That doesn't mean that we need expensive regulation that doesn't serve any benefit. However, to just say that an employer-employee relationship isn't anybody's business but their own is very naieve...