Marcela Turati found out on Saturday afternoon that she could be one of the 25 journalists in Mexico who were spied on by the Pegaz software. She learned this a few hours before the international research network published information about the "Pegasus" project. It was news that reverberated around the world like a bomb.
At first, Turati was surprised and couldn't believe it, but then everything was crystal clear to her. Because it belongs to people who, because of their work, are a thorn in the side of many in Mexico. It also means he has powerful enemies.
"You always have the feeling that you are being watched and spied on"
Turati is one of the most recognized investigative journalists in Mexico. He has been dealing with human rights violations in that Latin American country for years. She has written numerous books about the drug cartel war and is the voice of the victims of that struggle. "As a journalist here in Mexico you always have the feeling that you are being watched and spied on. But "Pegasus"? I thought it was too expensive. I have to digest it first," she said.
A large number of Mexican women and men feel the same way at this moment. However, the fact that almost every third piece of information in Mexico with around 50.000 phones is leaked, as estimated by the international network of reporters "Forbidene Stories" (Forbidene Stories), is astonishing only at first glance. Because Mexico was the first country to acquire the "Pegaz" software back in 2011.
Espionage is part of Mexican culture
The program was reportedly purchased by the Department of Defense, the Attorney General's Office, and Mexico's Secret Service. Through a fictitious company KBH Trak with the software of the Israeli NSO group, Mexico has become an experimental laboratory for espionage technologies.
"People here were not particularly surprised, nor stunned. Everyone knew that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had been practicing something similar for 70 years," said Turati. "It's in our blood, so to speak, that we don't trust mobile phones. And espionage is part of our culture."
The journalist still has to laugh when she talks about how her colleagues from abroad make fun of her extreme caution. During important meetings and training sessions, especially with local journalists in the country, mobile phones are left far away - sometimes even in the microwave oven. "You Mexicans are all paranoid," European colleagues would say.
A dangerous country for journalists
But it may be necessary to be a little paranoid, or rather careful, if you have already chosen this job in a country like Mexico. It is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Journalists are constantly being killed in Mexico. Just a month ago, local journalist Gustavo Sanchez was killed in the province of Oaxaca.
For Marcela Turati, the job is not only to shed light on the murders of migrants or the disappearance of 43 students in Ayozinapa, which attracted worldwide attention. She founded the network "Periodistas de a pie", with the aim of training local journalists and thus protecting her colleagues.
"There is a danger here for journalists to carelessly lose their fear." Because the threats are numerous and massive, and there is a risk of accepting everything as normal," says Turati. That's why she and her colleagues always have a list of contacts at hand, if a reporter goes to a dangerous area or if he doesn't call.
Is "Pegasus" involved in the murder?
The "Pegasus" affair led to a murder in 2017. That's when journalist Cecilio Pinjeda Birto was shot. He has written for years about organized crime and the drug mafia in southern Mexico, and the involvement of local politicians and police. Mexico: who will help you if the mafia won't?
Birt's phone number is also on the "Pegasus" list, which was registered as a possible espionage target long before his death. His cell phone was never found after the murder. So, was Birto spied on by that very software, which is supposed to be used to fight drug smugglers and terrorists?
And the president was spied on
Now that she thinks about it, Marcela Turati remembers many things, which were a bit strange to her at the time. The mobile phone of one of her colleagues, from which everything was suddenly deleted. Then other colleagues who no longer had access to their smartphone. As well as the fact that sometimes the phone would simply go wild with certain colleagues. "Then we'd joke that our spies got bored."
The problem is also, says Turati, that journalists in Mexico cannot afford to buy a new mobile phone every few months. Does this mean that in the end nothing will change in Mexico; to a country that is a sort of epicenter of scandals? Marcela Turati hopes that a commission will be established that will bring to light the whole truth about "Pegasus".
"The fact that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was himself a victim of espionage increases the chances that the matter will be investigated," says the journalist. The world will look in the direction of Mexico. "And maybe we will realize that spying is not a normal thing, as we in Mexico have always thought."
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