Using Texts as Lures, Government Spyware Targets Mexican Journalists and Their Families<br />“The fact that the government is using high-tech surveillance against human rights defenders and journalists exposing corruption, instead of those responsible for those abuses, says a lot about who the government works for,” said Luis Fernando García, the executive director of R3D, a digital rights group in Mexico<br />that has helped identify multiple abuses of Pegasus in Mexico.<br />By AZAM AHMED and NICOLE PERLROTHJUNE 19, 2017<br />MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s most prominent human rights lawyers, journalists and anti-corruption activists have been targeted by advanced spyware sold to the Mexican government on the condition<br />that it be used only to investigate criminals and terrorists.<br />But the government “categorically denies that any of its members engages in surveillance or communications operations against<br />defenders of human rights, journalists, anti-corruption activists or any other person without prior judicial authorization.”<br />The Mexican government’s deployment of spyware has come under suspicion before, including hacking attempts on political opponents<br />and activists fighting corporate interests in Mexico.<br />Mr. Patrón is the executive director of the Miguel Augustín Pro Juárez Human Rights<br />Center, perhaps the most highly respected human rights group in Mexico.
