Posted by Yaqui and DD Republished from the New York Times
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| President Enrique Peña Nieto, center, vowed last month to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of journalists in Mexico. Since 2011, the Mexican government has bought around $80 million worth of spyware for the stated purpose of combating crime. Credit Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
The
targets include lawyers looking into the mass disappearance of 43 students, a
highly respected academic who helped write anti-corruption legislation, two of
Mexico’s most influential journalists and an American representing victims of
sexual abuse by the police. The spying even swept up family members, including
a teenage boy.
Since
2011, at least three Mexican federal agencies have purchased about $80 million
worth of spyware created by an Israeli cyberarms manufacturer. The software,
known as Pegasus, infiltrates smartphones to monitor every detail of a person’s
cellular life — calls, texts, email, contacts and calendars. It can even use
the microphone and camera on phones for surveillance, turning a target’s
smartphone into a personal bug.
The company
that makes the software, the NSO Group, says it sells the tool exclusively to
governments, with an explicit agreement that it be used only to battle
terrorists or the drug cartels and criminal groups that have long kidnapped and
killed Mexicans.
But
according to dozens of messages examined by The New York Times and independent
forensic analysts, the software has been used against some of the government’s
most outspoken critics and their families, in what many view as an
unprecedented effort to thwart the fight against the corruption infecting every
limb of Mexican society.
“We are the
new enemies of the state,” said Juan E. Pardinas, the general director of the
Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, who has pushed anti-corruption
legislation. His iPhone, along with his wife’s, was targeted by the software,
according to an independent analysis. “Ours is a society where democracy has
been eroded,” he said.
The
deployment of sophisticated cyberweaponry against citizens is a snapshot of the
struggle for Mexico itself, raising profound legal and ethical questions for a
government already facing severe criticism for its human rights record. Under
Mexican law, only a federal judge can authorize the surveillance of private
communications, and only when officials can demonstrate a sound basis for the
request.
It is highly
unlikely that the government received judicial approval to hack the phones,
according to several former Mexican intelligence officials. Instead, they said,
illegal surveillance is standard practice.
“Mexican
security agencies wouldn’t ask for a court order, because they know they
wouldn’t get one,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a former analyst at the Center for
Investigation and National Security, Mexico’s intelligence agency and one of
the government agencies that use the Pegasus spyware. “I mean, how could a
judge authorize surveillance of someone dedicated to the protection of human
rights?”
“There, of
course, is no basis for that intervention, but that is besides the point,” he
added. “No one in Mexico ever asks for permission to do so.”
The hacking
attempts were highly personalized, striking critics with messages designed to
inspire fear — and get them to click on a link that would provide unfettered
access to their cellphones.
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| Carmen Aristegui, a Mexican journalist, has been targeted by spyware, as has her teenage son. Credit Edgard Garrido/Reuters |
Carmen
Aristegui, one of Mexico’s most famous journalists, was targeted by a spyware
operator posing as the United States Embassy in Mexico, instructing her to
click on a link to resolve an issue with her visa. The wife of Mr. Pardinas,
the anti-corruption activist, was targeted with a message claiming to offer
proof that he was having an extramarital affair.
