WATCHING

Report: Mexican Government’s Spyware Tracked Investigators of 43 Missing-Student

International team targeted with controversial Pegasus surveillance software.

The Mexican government used advanced spyware to surveil and interfere with the independent international human-rights team investigating the 2014 disappearance and presumed killing of 43 student-teachers, The New York Times reported Monday. The investigatory group’s main contact person received text messages laced with Pegasus spyware, which the Mexican government acquired to fight its lethal drug cartels and terrorism. Other investigators received texts inviting them to click on links that would unlock the target’s smartphone and turn it into a surveillance device. The 43 student-teachers disappeared after clashing with police; the remains of only one has been found, and the case has drawn wide outrage in Mexico, where hundreds of thousands protested at the time. The Mexican government denied has involvement in the espionage.