The Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) denies citizens the existence of contracts related to companies that sold the program Pegasus in Mexico, although he does have them in his files.
A series of transparency requests filed by the Network in Defense of Digital Rights (R3D) demonstrated the concealment of the Army.
R3D asked Sedena for contracts and documents associated with the company Antsua Marketerpart of the network of companies that sold the spy program in Mexico.
The Army denied having the papers.
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However, the organization obtained via transparency an official letter in which Sedena responded to the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) that he did have those documents.
The auditors were reviewing contracts for the National Institute of Migration (INM) with the same company, for which they requested data from Sedena.
The Army acknowledged that it did have the contracts and other documents, but did not hand them over to the ASF, alleging reasons of national security. Only one chain of payments was sent for the contracted services.
The contract with Comercializadora Antsua that the Army has not wanted to make transparent corresponds to 2019.
Officially, the reason or the service purchased is not known, but it is reported that it was for just over 139 million pesos.
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The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) learned about the matter because R3D filed a review appeal upon receiving Sedena’s refusal.
“It is clear that he does have the required information,” said the INAI commissioner, Josefina Romanduring the session of the Institute, which decided to order the Army to look for the papers and deliver them.
The commissioner indicated that the Sedena should have the data published on the internet, including those contracts awarded by direct award.
In particular, he pointed out that the data will serve to make public resources transparent and show how communication intervention activities are contracted.
For this reason, it was decided to instruct the Sedena to carry out a new search and deliver the data.
Guacamaya and the contract that Sedena does not want to make transparent
Despite multiple requests from organizations like R3D, the Army has refused to make the Pegasus contracts transparent.
However, the hacking of Sedena servers allowed us to know a little more about the data that does not want to be made transparent.
The revisions to the documents of #SedenaLeaks obtained by the Guacamaya collective show that there is, at least, a complete file on the contracting of the “Remote Information Monitoring Service” with Antsua Marketer.
Also, two files marked as “deadly trades” They describe the existence of the file, which contains the invoices, a technical opinion and an act of non-compliance.
The document is marked as “Secret” and was prepared by the Electronic Warfare section.
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Over the years, the existence of these types of contracts has been documented, along with abuses in the use of Pegasus, the program designed to prosecute criminals that has been used in Mexico against activists, politicians, and journalists.
Nevertheless, Despite the demands of civil society organizations, the Army continues not to disclose the documents and the use of espionage.
With information from Aristegui News
