Government intervention in private conversations over the telephone in the name of “national security” is on the increase, and equipment for listening in on phone conversations is becoming a lucrative business. According to El Caribe, it was Minu Torres, while serving as Administrative Minister for the Presidency, who complained that her telephone was being tapped. She made famous the phrase “it’s taken care of,” in reference to the solution of the problem by state security organizations. Former President Hipolito Mejia said in 1999 that his phones were being tapped, while he was campaigning for the presidency. He said that it was “sectors from the opposition (to his candidacy)” which were tapping his phones. During Mejia’s own administration journalist Manuel Jimenez accused Guido Gomez Mazara, the controversial former Presidential legal advisor, of tapping his phones and showed reporters a tape that was made of a conversation he and journalist Orlando Gil had had on his telephone. In November 2002 television commentator Cesar Medina told his viewers that former colonel Pedro Julio “Pepe” Goico had purchased millions of dollars worth of communications gear capable of listening to cell phone conversations. According to the article, the business of intercepting phone conversations is highly profitable and has been growing over the past decades. The paper says that it is generating millions of pesos for the purveyors of such services. While high-profile personalities are frequently targeted for spying, another market is industrial espionage as well as the ever-present marital infidelity. Telephone intercepts by state security organizations were first allowed under Resolution 091-02, which allows the DNI and the DNCD to carry out surveillance on private phone conversations in the interest of “national security.” In the face of a huge public outcry, the resolution was dropped in November of ’02. Just what protection does the consumer have? Law 153-98 is the Telecommunications Law and it says in Article II that “anyone who incurs the serious infraction of illegally intercepting telephone communications will receive an administrative punishment by the Telecommunications Institute (INFOTEL).” This is the same as a slap on the wrist. Resolution 36-00 allows a judge to authorize telephone intercepts, and this includes the state security units. The Supreme Court told the magistrates of the Courts of Instruction just what the authorizations should cover. Article 1.2 of the Resolution calls for the different companies to have a recording that warns of the possibility that the conversation will be heard by third parties. There are several other Resolutions, like the 31-01 and the 29-01 that deal with intercepts and the importation of the equipment needed to intercept phone conversations. Finally there is Law 24-97 which punishes those that violate the privacy of others.