RENAP SIBIO — Guatemala's Biometric ID Backbone, Re-Procured Amid Vendor Conflict-of-Interest Concerns

Guatemala's national civil registry, RENAP, issues the Documento Personal de Identificación (DPI) — the country's primary identity document — through SIBIO, a biometric system combining an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and a Face Recognition System (FRS). RENAP states that every DPI issued passes both checks, underpinning an identity infrastructure covering more than 18 million registered Guatemalans.
In March 2026, RENAP signed a Q39.9 million (about US$5.1 million), 24-month contract to overhaul SIBIO, sized to hold 30 million biometric records and handle 200,000 queries per day at 0.6-second response times.
Investigative reporting by La Hora found that the winning contractor, New Generation Networks S.A., had held only about Q1.16 million in prior government contracts between 2023 and 2025, mostly for minor supplies, before winning a contract to manage the biometric data of 18 million citizens. Journalists also found the company shared legal representatives, office addresses and business contacts with U Energy Corp, which had pursued a nearly identical, Huawei-linked Q39.7 million biometric contract with Guatemala's social security institute (IGSS) in 2024 — cancelled after the US State Department raised concerns about Chinese telecom and technology dominance. RENAP maintains that the actual software provider is the European firm Innovatrics, but the vendor-chain concerns remain unresolved in reporting.

Read the full analysis: https://www.renap.gob.gt/boletin/sistema-de-identificacion-biometrico-de-renap