This article is more than

1 year old

Spying in Mexico Strikes a New Victim: the President’s Ally

Author: Editors Desk Source: N.Y Times
May 22, 2023 at 06:22
Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s under secretary for human rights, speaking last year about the mass disappearance of 43 students.Credit...Henry Romero/Reuters
Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s under secretary for human rights, speaking last year about the mass disappearance of 43 students.Credit...Henry Romero/Reuters

While looking into abuses by the armed forces, the country’s top human rights official was targeted with Pegasus, the world’s most notorious spyware, The Times found.

He is a longtime friend of the president, a close political ally for decades who is now the government’s top human rights official.

And he has been spied on, repeatedly.

Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s under secretary for human rights, was targeted with Pegasus, the world’s most notorious spyware, while investigating abuses by the nation’s military, according to four people who spoke with him about the hack and an independent forensic analysis that confirmed it.

Mexico has long been shaken by spying scandals. But this is the first confirmed case of such a senior member of an administration — let alone someone so close to the president — being surveilled by Pegasus in more than a decade of the spy tool’s use in the country.

The attacks on Mr. Encinas, which have not been reported previously, seriously undercut President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pledge to end what he has called the “illegal” spying of the past. They’re also a clear sign of how freewheeling the surveillance in Mexico has become, when no one, not even the president’s allies, appears to be off limits.

Read More (...)

Keywords
Advertisement
You did not use the site, Click here to remain logged. Timeout: 60 second