Mexico continues to use Pegasus, the espionage program best known and most dangerous in the world. Not only that: the army of this country is the oldest client of this malicious software and the one that has attacked the most mobile phones worldwide. It was revealed by an investigation published today by The New York Timeswhich cites interviews with people linked to the contracts, documents and forensic evidence of hacked phones.
Pegasus is famous for being an alarming state surveillance tool. It is only sold to governments and they have used it all over the world, even in Spain. The favorite excuse is always the fight against crime, mafias and terrorism. But different independent investigations have verified that it has been used to persecute journalists, activists, businessmen and political leaders.
The United States added NSO Group, the Israeli company behind this program, to a commercial blacklist in 2021 after determining that its activities put national security at risk. But No place in the world has been more exposed to the dangers of Pegasus than Mexico.assures the report of the American media.
Negotiations between the Mexican State and NSO Group began in early 2011 and Pegasus was activated in the country in September of that year. And although the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador —in office since 2018— had promised to end espionage practices related to this company, never did. New York Timess published unpublished evidence of new hacks carried out in the second half of 2022.
Pegasus continues to be used in Mexico against human rights defenders
Pegasus was used to spy on the cell phones of two of the main defenders of human rights in Mexico. The New York Times exposed that the army infiltrated the devices of the director and the coordinator of the International Area of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Prodh Center), Santiago Aguirre and María Luisa Aguilar. The Prodh Center is an organization that assists relatives of the victims of the Ayotzinapa case of 2014, one of the most serious mass disappearances in Mexican history and in which units of the Army are involved.
“In this government, so many promises were made that things were going to be different,” said Santiago Aguirre. “Our first reaction was like saying: “It can’t be that we are in the same situation again.” He had also been a target of Pegasus during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the previous administration.
“Apple believes that you are a target of state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.” Aguirre received this message in his email on a Thursday last December. “It’s likely that these attackers are watching you, on an individual basis, because of who you are or what you do.” The warning explained that sensitive data on Aguirre’s phone could be compromised, including the camera and microphone.
Apple announced in 2021 that it would start sending these types of alerts to users who were victims of spyware hacks. Meta also applied a similar measure then.
What do those responsible say?
The Mexican army, according to the investigation of The New York Times, is the only state agency in Mexico that currently operates with Pegasus currently. The Secretariat of National Defense of Mexico was consulted by the media about the recent attacks, but did not want to give explanations. He only declared that he followed the current government position, which ensures that this type of espionage “is in no way aimed” at invading the private lives of civilians.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense must approve the export of Pegasus to other countries. After the ban in the United States in 2021, the Israeli government promised to prohibit the sale to nations where human rights violations were registered. However, despite the evidence of Pegasus abuses in Mexico, the israeli government has not intervened, according to four people familiar with the contracts. NSO Group, for its part, said in a statement that “adheres to strict regulation and cannot reveal the identity of its customers.”
Pegasus is by far one of the most invasive tools. It can infect a phone without giving any signal to the user. It gives spies the ability to extract all emails, text messages, photos and even calendar appointments. Besides, It allows them to see in real time everything that the person does with the device.