Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-wb) -- Since August 2006, Peruvian authorities are using the digital technology system known as "Automated Fingerprint Identification System" (AFIS) to track down and identify criminals, "John and Jane Doe's", double identities, and unregistered people (without ID cards known in Peru as DNI), among other purposes.

This information was given by the head of Peru's National Identification Registry (RENIEC), Eduardo Ruiz Botto. The Peruvian system currently holds more than 17 million people in its digitized database. As a comparison, Peru's overall population is currently estimated to be more than 28 million.

“Currently, about 40% of the stored fingerprints have been cleared and we have already detected 500 people who had a double identity”, he detailed.

All these cases have been transmitted to the RENIEC's judge advocate general's office for further investigation.

The clearing process will conclude in April 2007 and, at the same time, RENIEC is using the system to verify data of new citizen inscriptions to avoid document falsification, taking on identities of deceased people or double identities and to prevent multiple enrollment in an election.

During the last three months 30 cases have been detected where people tried to obtain a DNI with forged documents. “Today we know someone's real identity because of the person's digital fingerprint", Ruiz said.