THE PENA-NIETO REGIME CAN'T HELP
THEIR PEOPLE, BUT FINDS $80 MILLION
TO BUY SPY EQUIPMENT!
"In Mexico, attempts to spy on journalists take place in the context of broader attacks against freedom of the press. Mexico is the third deadliest country in the world for journalists, with many targeted for their coverage of organized crime, drug trafficking, and corruption. "
Mexican government uses malware to spy on journalists and political opponents
By Alex González
5 July 2017
On
June 19, a report by the New York Times and research center Citizen Lab
revealed that Israeli software purchased by the Mexican government was used to
spy on prominent journalists and human rights activist in the country,
including one minor. The software, known as Pegasus, collects all
communications of a targeted phone if the recipient opens a malicious link sent
via text message.
Pegasus
spyware lets hackers silently monitor all emails, texts, contacts, and
locations of an infected phone, as well as activate a phone’s microphone and
camera at will, even when the device is off. Over 76 text messages containing
the Pegasus malware were sent to lawyers working on the investigation of the 43
missing Ayotzinapa students, lobbyists working on anti-corruption and consumer
health legislation, political opponents of the government and journalists
critical of the Peña Nieto administration. A few individuals reportedly opened
the malicious links and fell victim to this targeted surveillance.
According
to the New York Times, at least three federal agencies—the Secretary
of Defense, the Office of the General Prosecutor, and the Center for Research
and National Security—have purchased over $80 million worth of the spyware from
the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group, itself owned by US private equity firm
San Francisco Partners. NSO Group sells products exclusively to governments
under the guise of fighting crime and terrorism.
The
hacking attempts coincided with key investigations critical of the government
led by the targeted individuals between January 2015 and August 2016, after
which Citizen Lab published a report linking Pegasus spyware to the targeting
of a human rights advocate in the United Arab Emirates. Due to media coverage
of the incident at that time, it is possible that the Citizen Lab investigation
led to the termination of the program on Mexican soil.
Although
records indicate the Mexican government began purchasing Pegasus spyware in
2011, the first known instance of NSO surveillance in Mexico dates from early
2015, when prominent journalist Carmen Aristegui began receiving suspicious
messages appearing to be Amber Alerts, or sent from her bank and her
colleagues. A few months earlier, Aristegui had broken a national conflict of
interest story related to the purchase of a $7 million house by Peña Nieto’s
wife from a government subcontractor, which was awarded lucrative contracts
when Peña Nieto was governor of the State of Mexico.
After
targeting Aristegui for over a year and a half, the hackers began contacting
her 16-year-old son while he was in the United States. One message impersonated
the embassy of the United States to Mexico, which may have violated US law.
Overall, Aristegui and her son received over 45 messages containing Pegasus
malware.
Other
hacking attempts targeted journalists who were investigating possible military
killings and corrupt officials. Carlos Loret del Sol, a journalist for national
television channel Televisa, received text messages with Pegasus
malware while reporting on extrajudicial killings by the military in western
Mexico and the their subsequent cover up by government officials. Salvador
Camarena and Daniel Lizárraga, both journalists for Mexicans Against Corruption
and Impunity (MCCI), were targeted while investigating Mexican officials and
prominent businessmen named in the Panama Papers.
Other
charges of NSO government spying shed light on the growing role of surveillance
in defending the ruling elite’s business and political interests. In February,
a separate investigation by Citizen Lab revealed that proponents of a national
soda tax—including a scientist at the Mexican National Institute for Public
Health and directors of consumer rights NGOs—were sent Pegasus malware. In the
eyes of the ruling elite, this was deemed an unacceptable encroachment on the
profit interests of soda companies in a country where 40 percent of the
population is obese.
Last
week, it was also revealed that NSO spyware was found on the phones of leading
members of the right-wing opposition Party of National Action (PAN), including
the phones of party president Ricardo Anaya, potential presidential candidate
Roberto Gil Zuarth, and party spokesperson Fernando Rodríguez Doval. These
messages were received in June 2016, the same month that the PAN won 12
governorships in the country, three of which were previously held by the ruling
PRI.
“It
is unacceptable that attempts to infect the phones of PAN members was carried
out by a program whose license can only be acquired by the government to fight
organized crime,” stated PAN president Ricardo Anaya. Despite Anaya’s feigned
opposition, the software was reportedly purchased in 2011, when the PAN’s
Felipe Calderón was president.
Andrés
Manuel López Obrador, presidential candidate of the “left” Movement of National
Regeneration (Morena), also postured as an opponent of spying and claimed he
would eliminate surveillance programs if he won the presidency: “Instead of
dealing with public security issues, they are spying on opponents and now
journalists…when Morena wins, [the Mexican spy agency] Cisen will disappear,
there will be no political espionage, freedom will be guaranteed, there will be
no phone surveillance.” López Obrador’s mention of “public security” proves he
is a firm defender of the military and is merely proposing a tactical shift to
give a facelift to the corrupt Mexican political establishment.
Mexico’s
president responded to the investigation by threatening those making
accusations against the government and doubling down on claims the surveillance
technology was used to “ensure the security of all Mexicans.”
“None
of the injured parties can prove their life has been affected or hurt by these
supposed interventions and by the alleged espionage…I hope justice can be
served against those who have raised false claims against the government,”
stated Peña Nieto.
Following
the New York Times article, the Office of the General Prosecutor (PGR)
started an investigation into the spying allegations, despite being one of the
agencies that reportedly purchased the software. The PGR has ignored calls for
an independent investigation of the surveillance program and has refused to
release a list of targeted individuals.
Despite
broad popular opposition, the crisis-ridden government has been pushing to
expand its surveillance capabilities. The Interior
Security Law, introduced by both the PRI and the PAN during the last
legislative session, was aimed at further institutionalizing spying measures by
granting the military the ability to engage in data collection without any form
of accountability and forcing private companies to hand over user data.
In
Mexico, attempts to spy on journalists take place in the context of broader
attacks against freedom of the press. Mexico is the third deadliest country in
the world for journalists, with many targeted for their coverage of organized
crime, drug trafficking, and corruption. Not a single conviction has resulted
from the 103 journalist killings in the country since 2000.
The
efforts of the Mexican government to curtail freedom of speech and of the press
are by no means an isolated phenomenon. All around the world, the capitalist
system is resorting to mass spying of the population to attempt to monitor and
control rising social discontent under the framework of protecting “national
security.”
IMMANENT COLLAPSE THE PENA-NIETO
REGIME AND FALL TO THE LA RAZA DRUG CARTELS ON AMERICAN OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS.
More significant still, a former Mexican official, Jorge Castañeda, threatened to unleash Mexican cartels onto the U.S. to retaliate for deportations of illegal immigrants and the construction of a border wall.
“Mexico in a country whose
four wealthiest
billionaires control as much wealth as the
bottom half of the population—the 65 million
that live in poverty (which includes 13 million
living in extreme poverty)—and where the
top 10 percent as a whole accounts for 67
percent of Mexico’s national wealth.”
billionaires control as much wealth as the
bottom half of the population—the 65 million
that live in poverty (which includes 13 million
living in extreme poverty)—and where the
top 10 percent as a whole accounts for 67
percent of Mexico’s national wealth.”
THE
TRUMP WALL LIE!
WAS IT THE FIRST BROKEN PROMISE?
WAS IT THE FIRST BROKEN PROMISE?
"If true, it
shows Trump being the ultimate cynic and not having
the courage to state his true beliefs to the American public who
elected him. That's always been my biggest problem with Trump:
his lack of integrity and consistent belief system."
----- ED STRAKER
the courage to state his true beliefs to the American public who
elected him. That's always been my biggest problem with Trump:
his lack of integrity and consistent belief system."
----- ED STRAKER
THE TRUMPER CIRCUS: SELLING US OUT
ON A WAVE OF BROKEN PROMISES!
TRUMP BACK-PEDDLES ON LEGALS AND
KEEPS OBAMA’S ILLEGAL AMNESTY OPERATING…. It’s all about keeping wages DEPRESSED!
TRUMP
FOLDS TO LA RAZA MEX FASCIST MOVEMENT
Says
the “WALL” will now be only “NO TRESSPASSING” signs posted every hundred miles!
“He's showing more empathy for illegal aliens than he is
for American citizens. Shouldn't it be the concerns of Americans he
should be considering first, before the feelings of illegals? These
people are taking taxpayer money and American jobs, some committing crimes, and
many are not assimilating and speaking English, and Trump wants them to stay?”
AMERICA THE ADDICTED!
How America surrendered to Mexico’s invasion, occupation
and looting.
The Mexican drug cartels now control most of America’s
southern borders as LA RAZA “The Race” fascist party expands Mexico’s anchor
baby welfare state from border to open border.
More significant still, a former Mexican official, Jorge Castañeda, threatened to unleash Mexican cartels onto the U.S. to retaliate for deportations of illegal immigrants and the construction of a border wall.
HEROIN: are you addicted yet?
1 in 7 Legals are!
HEROIN! Mexico’s
Gift to Occupied Aztlan America!
The LA RAZA drug cartels haul back $100 BILLION from
heroin sales.
More significant still, a former Mexican official, Jorge Castañeda, threatened to unleash Mexican cartels onto the U.S. to retaliate for deportations of illegal immigrants and the construction of a border wall.
AMERICA: NO LEGAL
NEED APPLY!
“The percentage of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor
force has more than tripled over the last four decades and while the U.S.
represents just 5 percent of the world’s population it attracts 20 percent of
the world’s immigrants, according to a new report.”
Open the floodgates of our welfare state to the uneducated,
impoverished, and unskilled masses of the world and in a generation or three
America, as we know it, will be gone.
Those most impacted are middle class and lower middle class. It is
they whose jobs are taken, whose raises are postponed, whose schools are filled
with non-English speaking children that absorb precious resources for remedial
English, whose public parks are trashed and whose emergency rooms serve as the
local clinic for the illegal underground.
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