Antonio Baranda / Reform Agency
Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 18:54
Mexico City.- Six months after the hacking was revealed to the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), the federal government assured that leaked -and published- documents lack legality and could have been altered.
As the formats were “exposed”, the Government argued in a position, any person could alter the documents or fabricate them in order to affect the image of the agency.
In the position titled “Intelligence actions, aimed at addressing threats and risks to national security,” he indicated that “some” documents hacked from the Sedena -related to alleged espionage- are not considered official.
He argued that there are hacked documents that are not signed or endorsed by any authority and that, for this reason, military reports were exposed and “any person” outside the agency could alter reports to affect the military institution.
“It is important to mention that some documents that various media have released are not considered official, relating them to the cyberattack suffered on Sedena servers, specifically institutional mail, which contains information of a public nature and is not classified. confidential,” he says.
“These documents are not signed, signed, or endorsed by any competent authority. The foregoing makes it clear that, due to said cyberattack, certain formats of military reports were exposed to the public light, so that any person outside the armed institute could prepare documents that involve the Armed Forces in order to affect their institutional image”.
Said publications, added the Government after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador instructed to establish a position, lack legal validity.
And they deny espionage again
As President López Obrador has insisted, the Government of the 4T assured that it does not espionage and that the corresponding institutions intervene in private communications with the prior authorization of a judge.
He assured that the national security authorities, including the Sedena, work on the collection, processing, dissemination and exploitation of information to generate intelligence, but said procedures, he maintained, “in no way” are aimed at knowing the private environment of actors political, social or media.
“They are only carried out in order to assist in the prosecution of justice; however, there have been cases in which, from the information collected by this type of activity, some people have been related to criminal organizations,” he added.
“The entire intelligence effort is aimed at combating organized crime and drug trafficking; only people related to these crimes have been arrested. National security agencies are legally prevented from carrying out this type of activity without a judge’s order.”
In the present Administration, the Government presumed, the judicial authority has detained 1,393 people; Of these, 27 are considered relevant because they are alleged leaders of criminal organizations and generators of violence in the country, such as Ovidio Guzmán, son of “Chapo”.
After it was revealed that the Sedena would have spied on the Tamaulipas human rights activist, Raymundo Ramos, he stressed that no political actor or activist who is not related to criminals has been detained by federal forces.
“The entire intelligence effort of the Mexican State is aimed at combating organized crime and drug trafficking, which is why no political or social actor, person belonging to a human rights organization, activist or other person who is not related to organized crime organizations”.
“With the development of intelligence products, it has been possible to carry out the arrest of other targets that generate violence, as well as the seizure of drugs and weapons.”
The Federation also stressed the importance of the confidentiality of intelligence work to avoid neutralizing the capacity of the State; and he emphasized that the work in this area also includes the analysis of information from open sources, field work, and inter-institutional meetings.
The official position does not clarify whether the Sedena acquired, or has used, the Pegasus spyware, nor does it confirm or deny the existence of the Military Intelligence Center, which would have carried out espionage, according to hacked documents.
