He’s a longtime pal of the president, an in depth political ally for many years who’s now the federal government’s prime human rights official.
And he has been spied on, repeatedly.
Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s below secretary for human rights, was focused with Pegasus, the world’s most infamous spyware and adware, whereas investigating abuses by the nation’s navy, based on 4 individuals who spoke with him concerning the hack and an impartial forensic evaluation that confirmed it.
Mexico has lengthy been shaken by spying scandals. However that is the primary confirmed case of such a senior member of an administration — not to mention somebody so near the president — being surveilled by Pegasus in additional than a decade of the spy tool’s use in the country.
The assaults on Mr. Encinas, which haven’t been reported beforehand, critically undercut President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pledge to finish what he has referred to as the “unlawful” spying of the previous. They’re additionally a transparent signal of how freewheeling the surveillance in Mexico has change into, when nobody, not even the president’s allies, seems to be off limits.
Pegasus is licensed solely to authorities businesses, and whereas there’s no definitive proof which one carried out the hack of Mr. Encinas’s cellphone, the navy is the one entity in Mexico that has entry to the spyware and adware, based on 5 folks accustomed to the contracts. The truth is, the Mexican military has targeted more cellphones with the expertise than any authorities company on this planet.
Mr. Encinas has lengthy been at odds with the armed forces. He and his group have accused them of being concerned within the mass disappearance of 43 students, one of many worst human rights violations within the nation’s current historical past.
His cellphone has been contaminated a number of occasions — as not too long ago as final 12 months whereas he was main a authorities fact fee into the abductions — giving the hackers unfettered entry to his whole digital life, based on the 4 individuals who have mentioned it with him.
Pegasus was wielded in opposition to a few of Mexico’s most outstanding journalists and democracy advocates a number of years in the past, igniting an international scandal that stained the earlier administration.
Nonetheless, the assaults on Mr. Encinas are not like something Mexico has witnessed.
“If somebody as near the president as Alejandro Encinas is focused, it’s clear there’s no democratic management over the spy device,” mentioned Eduardo Bohorquez, the director of the Mexican chapter of Transparency Worldwide, an anti-corruption group.
“There’s no checks and balances,” he added. “The navy is a superpower with zero democratic oversight.”
Mr. Encinas didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. The Mexican president and the Mexican protection ministry didn’t reply to requests for remark, both.
Pegasus can infect your cellphone with none signal of intrusion and extract every part on it — each e-mail, textual content message, picture, calendar appointment. It might watch by means of your cellphone’s digicam or pay attention by means of its microphone, even when your cellphone seems to be turned off.
Individuals who spoke with Mr. Encinas concerning the hacks mentioned he realized the small print of the infections after they have been confirmed by Citizen Lab, a watchdog group based mostly out of the College of Toronto. It performed a forensic evaluation of his cellphone that has not been made public.
The group additionally discovered proof that Pegasus had infiltrated the telephones of two different authorities officers who work with Mr. Encinas and have been concerned in inquiries into rights violations by the armed forces, three folks with data of the hacks mentioned.
Citizen Lab declined to remark.
The Israeli producer of Pegasus, NSO Group, opened an investigation into cyberattacks on human rights defenders in Mexico after current studies by The New York Occasions concerning the navy’s use of the spyware and adware, based on an individual accustomed to the NSO compliance investigations.
The corporate additionally started wanting into the assaults on Mr. Encinas and his two colleagues after The Occasions requested about these hacks, the particular person mentioned.
In an announcement, NSO mentioned that it doesn’t function particular person Pegasus techniques however “investigates all credible allegations of misuse,” including: “Previous NSO investigations have resulted within the termination of a number of contracts relating to the improper use of our applied sciences.”
The hacking has put Mr. Encinas and the president in a troublesome place. In early March, Mr. Encinas met with Mr. López Obrador to speak concerning the spying and whether or not to go public with it, based on a number of folks briefed on the dialog.
However Mr. Encinas has saved quiet about his Pegasus an infection since, they mentioned.
Over the summer season, he and his group printed an explosive report concerning the 43 college students’ disappearance that accused the navy of taking part in a job, calling the events “a crime of the state.”
Then, questions emerged concerning the proof, and Mr. Encinas got here below intense scrutiny — particularly after he admitted in an interview with The Times that key items of the inquiry had been “invalidated.”
Legal professionals representing navy officers implicated within the case referred to as for his resignation and sued him for falsifying proof. All through, Mr. López Obrador has stood by Mr. Encinas, calling him “an exemplary public servant in whom we now have all our confidence.”
The 2 males have been political companions for greater than 20 years; Mr. Encinas served in Mr. López Obrador’s cupboard when he grew to become mayor of Mexico Metropolis in 2000.
“Andrés is my pal, he’s my companion,” Mr. Encinas was quoted as saying in 2011. “We’re a part of a group and a challenge.”
However since Mr. López Obrador took workplace, the 2 males haven’t all the time been aligned on the rising energy of the navy.
The nation’s armed forces have vastly expanded their authority below Mr. López Obrador, accumulating broad management over policing in addition to a formidable slate of different actions, together with constructing a lot of a 1,000-mile railway and an airport, distributing medication and managing ports and customs.
Mr. Encinas has been one of many few folks keen to criticize the navy from contained in the administration.
When troopers killed 5 folks in northern Mexico this 12 months, Mr. Encinas mentioned publicly that the unarmed males have been “executed” by the military.
The president hasn’t tamped down his assist of the armed forces. Regardless of mounting proof of the military misusing Pegasus, Mr. López Obrador has continued to disclaim that any spying is occurring.
“We don’t spy on anybody,” Mr. López Obrador mentioned in March. He added: “It’s an act of dishonesty and lack of ideas to be spying.”
When the Israeli Ministry of Protection licenses the sale of Pegasus to authorities businesses, they need to signal agreements to make use of the surveillance device solely for combating extreme crime or terrorism, based on three Israeli protection officers.
NSO is now wanting into whether or not using Pegasus in Mexico violated that settlement.
Dealing with two lawsuits in the US by Apple and Meta, WhatsApp’s dad or mum firm, NSO is below extra stress than ever to exhibit that it’s implementing its personal guidelines. The Biden administration additionally blacklisted the Israeli firm in 2021, involved about how Pegasus was used to “maliciously goal” dissidents internationally.
NSO appealed the choice, however as a part of the method, the corporate is hoping to point out that it’s stopping abuse.
A senior government at NSO mentioned that the corporate had disconnected 10 shoppers after they broke the phrases of their contracts. One among them, the emir of Dubai, used Pegasus to spy on his ex-wife, according to public court records.
If NSO confirms that Mr. Encinas and others have been focused for no reputable motive by the Mexican navy, the corporate may instantly shut down the establishment’s entry to Pegasus.
Publicly, Mr. López Obrador’s stance has not modified. After The Occasions revealed how the Mexican navy grew to become the world’s first — and most prolific — user of Pegasus, the president mentioned the armed forces “are respectful of human rights and don’t do spying like earlier than.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.
