The New York Times reveals alleged US espionage in Mexico

The United States government would have signed a contract with the NSO Group company in 2021, through a name-bringer, in order to have access to the geolocation of mobile phone users in Mexico, revealed a report by The New York Times.

“The secret contract, which The New York Times reveals for the first time, violates the public policy of the Biden administration and still appears to be active.

“The contract, reviewed by The Times, stated that the ‘US government’ would be the ultimate user of the tool, although it is unclear which government agency authorized the deal and might be using the spyware. It specifically allowed the government to test, evaluate, and even deploy the spyware against targets of its choosing in Mexico.”

In the article, signed by journalists Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzeti, it was detailed that the contract for the use of Pegasus was signed five days after the president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced measures against NSO Group – the company that created the program espionage—by integrating it to the blacklist of the Department of Commerce in order to extinguish any relationship between government agencies and the company of Israeli origin.

According to the investigation, White House officials denied any knowledge of the use of the software, named Landmark, which was used in 2017 by a Saudi royal adviser to track dissidents.

“Under this contract, according to two people (with knowledge of the use of the software), there have been thousands of inquiries in at least one country, Mexico. The contract also allows Landmark to be used against mobile numbers in the United States, although there is no evidence that this has happened,” he said.

contractors

The report indicated that the US government’s contract with NSO for the use of the spy tool was signed by a front company and by a businessman who used a false name.

“The secret November 2021 contract used the same US company, designated as ‘Cleopatra Holdings,’ but actually (is tied to) a small New Jersey-based government contractor called Riva Networks, which the FBI used for two years. before to buy Pegasus.

“Riva’s CEO used an assumed name when signing the 2021 contract and at least one contract Riva executed on behalf of the FBI,” it said.

The investigation concluded that for each search carried out in the mobile geolocation tool, NSO must be paid and that payments have still been made by the Cleopatra Holding company for the queries.

politica@eleconomista.mx