The Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información, IFAI) ordered the Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Sedena) to disclose firearm license information that it had previously requested. Specifically, the decision by the panel charged with ensuring transparency in government dealt with licenses issued by the defense agency for firearms used only by the army. These were issued to various municipal, state, and federal public officials.
Initially, Sedena had tried to avoid revealing this information arguing that it did not have access to this information. However, the IFAI panel rejected this claim. It stated that Sedena is the agency responsible for authorizing such licenses in the first place and, as such, their claim was doubtful. The panel held that Sedena has the ability and authority to disclose the requested data about the number of licenses and the dates they were issued to those public officials. The IFAI panel’s decision does not involve the license-holders’ personal information (such as their names); it agreed that it is best to keep such information confidential since disclosing it could affect the government’s public security efforts.
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