Espionage with Pegasus in Mexico: ‘The Armed Forces have accumulated immense power,’ says director of R3D

First modification: 06/10/2022 – 12:42

Last week, a group of hackers called Guacamaya published thousands of documents and emails from the Mexican Secretary of National Defense, SEDENA.

Based on these documents and a technical report, the Mexican NGO for the defense of digital rights R3D affirmed that the Mexican Army bought and used the Pegasus espionage program, from the Israeli company NSO Group, to spy on an activist and two journalists.

“Everything indicates that it is the Army”

The use of said program against journalists under the previous government had caused outrage, so this time, it would have been acquired through intermediary companies, according to the leaked documents.

Luis Fernando García, the director of R3D, explains to RFI that the NGO asks “that the government requires the NSO Group company and the Israeli government to reveal, to make public who are the clients of the NSO Group in Mexico, who have been your customers. Everything indicates that it is the Army.”

The problem is that “President López Obrador has rested his government in a very important way on the Armed Forces. Now, the Armed Forces in Mexico control public security, they control ports, airports, customs, roads, they build works, they have banks, they have accumulated immense power for which they are not accountable”, he underlines.

“One of two options”

According to the director of R3D, “there is one of two options: either President López Obrador has repeatedly lied and ordered or was aware that the Army was spying on journalists and human rights defenders, or the Army disobeys its supreme commander.”

Among the three people who were spied on with Pegasus under López Obrador’s current six-year term, according to the investigation, is Raymundo Ramos, a human rights defender in the state of Tamaulipas.

“For many years, Raymundo Ramos has documented human rights violations committed by the Armed Forces, the Navy and the Army. Ramos approached us and we checked his phone and found evidence of Pegasus espionage, ”says Luis Fernando García.

“He was attacked in August and September 2020, which was a specific moment in which a video was released showing the participation of the Armed Forces in the extrajudicial execution of three civilians in Tamaulipas,” he specifies.

The Mexican president did not confirm whether the Army was still using the controversial espionage program, but announced that a public report would be released on the matter.