In an interview with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, three unnamed officers from the administration of President Joe Biden claimed that the US sponsored the acquisition of the Pegasus adware by the Colombian authorities in mid-2021.
Pegasus – together with its Israeli mum or dad firm NSO Group – had been positioned on a US blacklist by the Biden administration in November 2021, after it decided that the adware acted “opposite to the international coverage and nationwide safety pursuits of the US,” according to the US Federal Register. The software program has reportedly been used to spy on journalists, opposition politicians, and activists in locations like Mexico, Europe and Asia.
In early September 2024, present Colombian President Gustavo Petro known as for an investigation into the alleged use of Pegasus by the earlier administration of Iván Duque.
Picture Supply: Gustavo Petro by way of X.
Learn extra: Colombia to investigate alleged use of Pegasus spyware by Iván Duque government
The investigators have since proved that two planes from Israel did land on Colombian territory- first in June after which in September 2021- and {that a} monetary transaction totaling USD $11 million befell between each governments, as per El Tiempo.
“I’ve a authorized proper to declassify secret data if the human rights of Colombians are being endangered. The Pegasus software program was dropped at spy on youth management actions and the opposition’s communications for over six months,” stated President Petro by way of X.
Former President Duque additionally issued a response to the allegations, wherein he said that he gave clear directions so that every one authorities officers throughout his administration complied with the legislation, and that the supposed acquisition of the adware was not registered by the Ministry of Protection or police intelligence.
“The President’s workplace by no means ordered the acquisition of the ‘Pegasus’ software program on behalf of the Colombian State. Former President Duque didn’t take part in any course of of products acquisition,” Duque shared on X.
Daniel García-Peña, present ambassador of Colombia to the US, attended a gathering with some high-ranking safety officers from the Biden administration on November 8 to deal with the matter.
“It’s fully suspicious and irregular that these funds had been made in money, supposedly to keep away from useful resource traceability. Right here lie the questions that we maintain asking; the officers gave us some solutions however we nonetheless have many doubts, and we’re shocked as a result of often, if a scenario like this was respectable and all the pieces was guided in the direction of combating drug dealing, making money funds could be extremely irregular,” the ambassador stated minutes after the assembly concluded, standing exterior the White Home.
American officers additionally confused that the Pegasus adware was by no means instantly handed to Colombian authorities. As a substitute, Colombian intelligence items would inform their US counterparts of who they thought of potential targets for interception, the ambassador told the press.
Greater than a month after President Petro first spoke in regards to the scenario, NSO Group responded after information outlet La FM reached out to them for touch upon October 23.
“NSO is a law-abiding firm. As such, all transactions had been carried out in accordance with the legislation and with correct authorization and documentation in each nations. Every other declare is inaccurate and doesn’t replicate actuality,” the corporate’s VP of communication, Gil Lainer, reportedly advised La FM.
Whereas the investigation is ongoing, some query whether or not the US officers are telling the reality, and the way neither Duque nor Petro had been knowledgeable of such an operation.
“Does the US pay in money now? How did the US ‘reward’ Colombia a adware with none high-ranking official understanding about this? This isn’t an official communication with the federal government of the US, and we must ask for affirmation instantly from the White Home,” stated Senator Antonio Correa, member of the center-right Union Occasion for the Folks.
As signaled by ambassador García-Peña, he demanded that the data obtained by way of Pegasus be handed again to Colombian authorities to make sure that the adware was used for the needs alleged by the US officers. The American authorities dedicated to relaying this demand, however they didn’t specify when, the place or if they might ever facilitate the data.
“We had been very emphatic in that we have to know all the pieces, and that each Colombians and US authorities have a proper to the data that was compiled by this software program,” the ambassador said.
Colombia has an extended historical past of spying on its citizenry. In 2009, the federal government of Duque’s political patron, former President Álvaro Uribe Velez, was concerned in a wiretapping scandal that ensnared judges, journalists and opposition members. In 2014, it was revealed that Colombia’s navy employed a hacker to spy on negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and in 2020, the press reported that the navy once more used Israeli spy instruments – allegedly lent to the military by the US – to spy on judges, politicians, military officers, and reporters, together with then-New York Occasions Andes Bureau Chief Nicholas Casey.
