Mexico: "These are practices to have control, intimidate, and impose" - AMLO on Pegasus spyware use

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador presented details of the contracts that previous governments had with an Israeli company for the use of the Pegasus spy software, on Wednesday in Mexico City.

“All of this has to do with the old regime, they were practices to have control, to intimidate, to manipulate, to impose themselves. This was a hallmark throughout the neoliberal period, in practically all governments, even before, but espionage was perfected from a new stage that began with Carlos Salinas,” said Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador highlighted the journalistic investigation that exposed the operation of the spyware and called for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to be released from prison: “The investigation that was carried out worldwide is important, and that is also why WikiLeaks was important at the time, Assange should be released because he is unjustly in prison, treated with viciousness, for revealing something similar and I think even more widespread.”

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has already requested all the information about the contracts signed between different government agencies and the company that developed the software.

According to an investigation published Sunday by 17 media sources worldwide including Le Monde and The Guardian, the Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, made it possible to spy on at least 180 journalists, and 600 politicians, as well as 85 activists and 65 business leaders since 2016.

The Israeli tech firm NSO Group, which created Pegasus, said it provided “authorised governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime.”

SOT, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican President (Spanish): “All this has to do with the old regime, they were the practices to have control, to intimidate, to manipulate, to impose themselves. This was a hallmark throughout the neoliberal period, in practically all governments, even before, but espionage was perfected from a new stage that began with Carlos Salinas”.

SOT, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican President (Spanish): “All of this must disappear, this is the most important thing, the non-repetition, the fact that no one is spied on, that’s why the investigation that was carried out worldwide is important, and also why WikiLeaks was important at the time, Assange, must be freed because he is unjustly in prison, treated with viciousness, for making something similar known and I believe that it is even more widespread”.

SOT, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican President (Spanish): “Because no one should be spied on, opponents should be respected. And intelligence systems must be oriented towards defence and the protection of the defence of states, national security, to guarantee peace and tranquillity, to confront organised crime, but espionage cannot be used for political purposes”.

SOT, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican President (Spanish): “It’s good that the public prosecutor’s office has started an investigation, that it should go deeper, that more elements should be presented, that this whole affair should be aired. Above all, I insist, the cost, because it was a juicy business for both the companies and the officials, imagine a contract, how much was the Pegasus contract, 32 million dollars, to begin with”.

SOT, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican President (Spanish): “A lot of money was spent on spying, and that all that should disappear, that there should be guarantees that we can act freely, that we can talk on the phone and not think that they are listening to us.

#Mexico #AMLO #Pegasus

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