An exclusive El País report published on Saturday revealed that Ecuadorian officials are obtaining genetic information from prisoners through deception, in a bid to curb the rampant gang-related crimes in the country.
According to the report, officials obtain the genetic information of prisoners by telling them that the information is being stored so that their bodies may be identified in the event of a prison massacre. The report says officials make the process seem as if it is standard prison procedure to prevent or discourage the prisoners from consulting with their lawyers and representation. Three official sources for the report say that the information is stored to help implicate the prisoners in any past or future crimes.
Personal data in Ecuador is protected under the Organic Law on the Protection of Personal Data, adopted in 2021, which is modeled from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The legislation establishes a national data protection authority, regulates cross-border data transfers, and grants the right to request access to personal data, amend it, or have it removed. These rights are also protected in the Constitution of Ecuador in Article 66.
Article 92 of the Constitution also gives the right to every person to be informed of or have access to information including personal data banks and genetic data about themselves, with the right to be informed of the use, purpose, origin and destination of the personal data and time of permanence. Non-compliance with these protection laws should result in the disposal of the data.
The Permanent Committee on Human Rights (CDH) commented on the report’s findings, saying that the prisoners’ “right to health would be violated” by the collection of their data, and that all sensitive data must be kept under “absolute confidentiality.” Importantly, the collection of sensitive data must be consented to and provided voluntarily while prisoners are accompanied by their legal representative or advised by them. It also said that the Ministry of Public Health is the only entity that should be guaranteed access to this data. CDH stated that it was not previously aware that genetic data was being obtained from prisoners.
The CDH has been critical of the treatment of people in prisons since the government began military interventions to curb gang-related activities in prisons. In January, it released a report on its monitoring of Ecuador’s prison crisis, finding that there have been practices of “systematic torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment suffered by people deprived of liberty and their families registered by the CDH.” It found that these inhuman practices include “gradual denial of food, confinement in cells with pepper spray, wet towels with pepper, beatings and whippings”.
