Mexico hires consortium to make biometric IDs

MEXICO CITY - A consortium comprising Axtel and the Mexican subsidiary of US information technology giant Unisys won a contract to create biometric identity cards for Mexico’s 107 million people, authorities said.

The bid from telecom company Axtel, S.A.B. de C.V. and Unisys de Mexico SA de CV was 664.5 million pesos ($51 million), the Mexican interior ministry said in a communique.

The Mexican government had announced the creation of a population register with citizen ID cards that would include biometric data including fingerprints, iris scans and blood type.

The ministry said the step denotes progress in completing the National Population Register in order to accredit and certify “with certainty” the identity of 107 million Mexicans.

It said that the winning bid included the installation of an IT infrastructure for the storage and maintenance of data at the interior ministry, plus the “acquisition of biometric search engines to bring up the photograph of a particular face, the iris of both eyes, and fingerprints”.

The ministry said that the security of confidential data will be guaranteed.

Last month Mexican authorities announced the purchase of equipment that will be used to store that data for the ID cards at a cost of 299.4 million pesos ($23 million).

–EFE