* Mexico was testbed for Pegasus software abroad
* Investigation has not found those responsible
* Prosecutors say they are close to taking a case to court
By Avi Asher-Schapiro and Christine Murray
LOS ANGELES/MEXICO CITY, Aug 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A decade after Mexico became a testbed for the global spy tool now known as Pegasus, prosecutors still cannot say who ordered the mass surveillance of innocent civilians and government critics, people familiar with the investigation said.
What is more, the office leading the probe was one of the entities that first bought the military-grade Israeli spyware, whose global reach – enabling the remote surveillance of smartphones – has raised fears of unprecedented snooping on civilians.
Mexico alone spent more than $160 million on Pegasus over a decade, the government says, giving ministries the power to spy on ordinary people and opponents of the then-government alike.
“Again and again these tools are being abused everywhere,” said Luis Fernando Garcia, executive director of digital rights nonprofit R3D.
“This is not a few bad apples or a few bad public officials.”
There have been no arrests or announcements of sackings over the Mexican revelations, despite forensic evidence showing the software had been widely used to target government critics.
Pegasus software, developed by Israeli company NSO Group, was used globally to try to hack the phones of journalists, activists and government officials, found an investigation published last month by a group of 17 international media organisations and Amnesty International.
But Mexico had a four-year headstart to probe the explosive allegations: years that critics say were – at best – squandered.
