Skeptical U.S. Rebuffs Mexico’s Request for Aid in Spyware Inquiry
20, 2018
MEXICO CITY — American officials have rebuffed repeated requests from Mexico to help investigate the use of government spying technology against innocent civilians, wary
that Mexico wants to use the United States as cover in a sham inquiry, senior American officials say.
But after reviewing the request, American officials decided not to get involved, leery
that the Mexican government had little interest in actually solving the case because a serious investigation might implicate some of its most powerful figures, senior American officials said.
Prosecutors handling the case have yet to question any of the officials responsible for operating
the surveillance technology, according to the victims’ lawyers and their review of the case file.
Prosecutors have for now also declined to examine the servers used by the officials
who operated the spying technology, according to the case files and the lawyers.
But investigators have not even identified the government employees who operate the technology, or visited the offices where
the spying operation was conducted, according to interviews with the victims and their lawyers and the the case files.
But more than six months after the investigation was announced, some of the American concerns appear to be bearing out, according to victims of the spying
and their lawyers, who have had access to the case files.
