Commissioners of Mexico’s Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data have accused the federal attorney general of preventing its investigation into the government’s use of spyware to monitor journalists, lawyers and activists, The Associated Press reports. The commissioners alleged the government contracted Pegasus software from Israel’s NSO Group to aid in surveillance efforts. Despite initially denying the contract, the office then divulged that it had a $32 million contract with the company but had not employed the software. In 2017, an investigation from Citizen Lab found that prominent Mexican journalists had been targeted by the spyware, as well as evidence that members of a team backed by the Organization of American States were targeted.
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