This is how they marched in San Salvador against President Nayib Bukele 2:47
(CNN Spanish) --
The Government of El Salvador denies being responsible for the intervention of the phones of at least 35 journalists and members of civil society in the country, through the Pegasus spy program.
This after a report published this Wednesday by Access Now and Citizen Lab, backed by 4 international organizations, said that these people were spied on between 2020 and 2021, although it does not detail who is directly responsible.
According to the report, the intervention affected at least 22 journalists from El Faro, according to what was published by the same outlet, and professionals from GatoEncerrado, La Prensa Gráfica, Revista Digital Disruptiva, Diario El Mundo, El Diario de Hoy and 2 journalists. independent.
For the founder and director of El Faro, Carlos Dada, the person responsible for the espionage is the Government of El Salvador.
“We were not surprised to find out that we had been intervened, but rather the quantity, frequency and duration of these interventions.
Almost all of El Faro has been intervened," said Dada in the note published by that medium.
Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador orders to reopen case for massacre of Jesuit priests
The investigation by Access Now and Citizen Lab, a laboratory specialized in cybersecurity at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with Frontline Defenders, SocialTIC and Fundación Acceso, which was verified by experts from Amnesty International, reveals that "the first signs of attack in the Sample devices were produced around July 30, 2020. Signs of threat or attempted attack continued through November 15, 2021,” according to a statement from Amnesty International.
The statement adds that technicians reviewed the report and independently verified the forensic evidence that demonstrates the abusive use of Pegasus in El Salvador.
advertising
According to what was published by El Faro, the expertise in the telephones of 11 of its members concluded that there was interference in the device.
In the other 11 cases, there was also information extraction.
“The use of Pegasus to monitor communications in El Salvador reveals a new threat to human rights in the country.
The authorities must stop any efforts to restrict freedom of expression, and carry out an impartial and exhaustive investigation to identify those potentially responsible,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Government rejects espionage
The Government of President Nayib Bukele, who assumed power on June 1, 2019, denied this Wednesday night in a statement that he was behind the alleged espionage of journalists or members of civil society.
"The government of El Salvador does not have the resources or the licenses to use this type of software," said Sofía Medina, Secretary of Communications of the presidency.
Medina maintains that on November 23, 2021, he received an alert from Apple, like other government officials, about a possible intervention on his cell phone.
For that reason, as revealed, the Government is already investigating the possible use of Pegasus and other systems to tap phones in the country.
"We have indications that we, government officials, are also being victims of attacks," Medina added.
According to the Ministry of Communications, the Government of El Salvador "is not related to Pegasus and is not a client of NSO Group."
CNN contacted the Israeli company NSO Group, creator of the Pegasus software, to find out its reaction after the disclosure of this new investigation.
However, the firm has not yet responded.
In a statement, the company assures that there are no active systems in El Salvador but promised to investigate, once it receives the phone numbers that have allegedly been tapped, to determine if there was misuse of its system in the past.
NSO clarifies that it only provides the software but does not operate the technology and does not have access to the data collected.
It adds that the use of cyber tools to monitor dissidents, activists and journalists is a serious misuse of any technology.
On its website, the Israeli firm says it seeks to ensure licensed customers use its products only "for their legal and necessary purposes of preventing and investigating terrorism and serious crime."
For that reason, it adds that it licenses its products only to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
It ensures that the systems are sold following an investigation and licensing process by the Israeli defense ministry.
The US sanctions officials from El Salvador, whom it points to negotiating a political agreement with gangs: Bukele's response
In the past, NSO Group told CNN via email: "We are sorry to see, time and time again, how the company's name is mentioned in news that has nothing to do with NSO, directly or indirectly."
El Salvador appears on a list of 25 countries whose governments would have acquired a surveillance system from the company Circles, affiliated with the NSO Group, according to a study published in December 2020 by Citizen Lab. According to that report, the system would have been in operation since 2017 , in the second government of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. On this point, CNN requested a reaction from then Vice President Óscar Ortiz, current Secretary General of the FMLN, but he has not responded.
For its part, the Association of Journalists of El Salvador condemned the intervention and asked the State for a serious response.
“Espionage against journalists invades the private spheres of their lives, appropriates information about their sources, and diverts considerable resources in the follow-up of all the people related in the personal, professional and family environment, while encouraging a message of I hate independent and professional journalism,” he says in a statement.