Mural No More Massive Spying by @WarDesignCo. Image via Flickr user Klepen, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 license. Mexico has become a prime destination for the surveillance technology industry in the Americas. Trade fairs are held annually and relationships between manufacturers, distributors and the Mexican government has intensified rapidly throughout the administration of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. We are now beginning to see the causes and effects of these espionage practices. Journalistic and independent investigations carried out by civil society organizations as well as various leaks have brought this relationship to light since 2013. In 2013, University of Toronto's Citizen Lab reported that spyware company Gamma Group was operating in Mexican telecommunications, which led to an investigation by various civil society organizations. That investigation along with journalistic research, documented the fact that FinFisher/FinSpy spyware had been acquired by several Mexican authorities through the company Obses de México. Following a massive leak in 2015, we learned that the Mexican government had also purchased spyware from the controversial Italian firm, Hacking Team, through the intermediary, Teva Tech México SA. Those documents revealed that Mexico was the firm's main client worldwide, having made multi-million dollar purchases of surveillance tools called Galileo and DaVinci, both of which are commercial names for Remote Control Systems or RCS. Later in September 2016, the New York Times revealed that the Mexican government had entered into contracts with the Israeli firm NSO Group to acquire Pegasus surveillance software. By the end of 2016, additional reports documented purchases of equipment with interception capabilities known as IMSI-Catchers from companies in Finland and Switzerland each year from 2012 to 2015. The most recent scandal took place on June 19, 2017 when 76 new cases of attempts to use Pegasus malware against journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico were revealed thanks to research, documentation and publication of a report by Article 19 and Mexico City-based NGOs Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) and SocialTIC, along with technical research by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. The New York Times published a detailed report about the investigation that appeared on the front page of the US newspaper: Ganamos primera plana en el NYT. Algo de corrupción? No, publican cómo nos espía el Gob de Peña a periodistas y activistas #GobiernoEspía pic.twitter.com/IujXLtx8OT — Daniel Lizárraga (@danliza) June 19, 2017 We're on the front page of the NYT. Is it about corruption? No, they published about how Peña's government spies on journalists and activists #GobiernoEspía Mexico's legal framework authorizes interception of private communications for the purpose of investigating crimes — with previous approval from the federal judicial authority. The Mexican government has insisted that their use of surveillance technology has been authorized by relevant authorities. Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington, confirmed this to the New York Times in a previous article about the Mexican government's million dollar contracts with the Israeli company NSO Group in 2013. Nevertheless, evidence indicates that the tools have been used against activists, journalists and people who have expressed dissenting opinions or oppose the current government. As a result of the multiple proofs of illegal digital surveillance utilizing software exclusively used by governments, on May 23, 2017, social organizations that were a part of the Secretariado Técnico Tripartita (Tripartite Technical Secretariat or STT) of the Open Government Alliance (AGA) stepped down from their positions in the group: Por espionaje, sociedad civil deja participación en Secretariado Técnico Tripartita de Alianza para Gobierno Abierto pic.twitter.com/XxyBvhpFih — Fundar (@FundarMexico) May 23, 2017 Due to espionage, civil society will cease participation in the Secretariado Técnico Tripartita for Open Government Prior to the most recent revelation, the New York Times reported on February 11 that three members of organizations defending the right to health had all received text messages containing malicious links from Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group. They included Alejandro Calvillo, general director of El Poder del Consumidor (The Power of Consumers); Luis Encarnación, coordinator of the Coalición ContraPESO (Counterweight Coalition); and Dr Simón Barquera, a researcher attached to the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (National Institute of Public Health).