Amnesty International urges Mexican government to be transparent and firm on espionage affair

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday urged the Mexican government to be forceful and transparent with respect to the Pegasus spying program that tapped 15,000 phones in the country, including human rights defenders and journalists.

“We call on president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to disclose past or current contracts with the NSO Group (the Israeli firm that developed the software). We want to know which agencies signed the contracts, who was under surveillance and who made the decisions,” said in an online press conference Edith Olivares, executive director of Amnesty International Mexico.

Last July 18 an investigation by international media uncovered that several countries tapped 50,000 phones using the Pegasus software, of which 15,000 cases occurred in Mexico during Peña Nieto’s administration, the highest figure.

The investigation revealed that communications of activists and journalists, of the then opposition leader and current president, López Obrador, his collaborators and his cardiologist, as well as relatives of the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa were tapped.

Olivares and the other conference participants consider that the federal authorities’ response, which failed to contact the people on the list of the software’s potential targets, has not been forceful enough.

“There is a significant challenge for the government: this issue is not over, we want to know where our information is, who has it and to be sure that it will be destroyed. This is a crucial time to vindicate the work of defenders,” said Yéssica Sánchez Maya, human rights defender and director of Consorcio Oaxaca.

Consequently, AI explained the need to develop a legal framework to regulate the use of technology for spying in Mexico and to ensure accountability, in an extremely violent context for defenders and journalists in which there has been no guarantee that this or other tools will not continue to be used.

“We call on the Mexican Congress to legislate that digital surveillance in the country be conducted in a manner that respects human rights,” Olivares said.

Abel Barrera, director and founder of the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights, also on the list, said that Pegasus is only one example of Mexico’s espionage culture.

“There is a whole espionage system which is not only limited to software. Institutions have specialized in surveillance and attacks against journalists and defenders. I see it as difficult to dismantle overnight,” he said.

In addition, the activist argued that “surveillance and espionage continue,” which they feel is because there is silence. “More forceful actions are required,” he asserted.

So far, the government has provided information on the funds invested in contracts with Pegasus, but AI insisted that beyond the money, the narrative must focus on the fact that there was and continues to be a blatant violation of human rights not only of journalists and activists, but also of Mexican society as a whole.

Last July 20 the Prosecutor General’s Office (FGR) confirmed that there was espionage through Pegasus in Mexico and opened an investigation, while the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) disclosed that previous governments, starting with Felipe Calderón’s (2006-2012), paid a US$32 million contract to the program’s developer Israeli NSO.

Last Wednesday the government reported that there were 31 contracts linked to Israeli NSO Group between 2011 and 2018 for an amount of 1.97 billion pesos (US$61 million).

Although López Obrador and his relatives were victims of espionage, the president has refused to investigate his predecessors and instead has called on citizens to participate in the August 1 referendum.