On August 4, 2026, the First Collegiate Tribunal of the Thirtieth Circuit confirmed the injunction (amparo) ordering the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) to release public versions of two contracts from 2018 and 2019 linked to the Pegasus spyware, worth more than 140 million pesos, according to Aristegui Noticias.
Pegasus is a surveillance program developed by Israeli company NSO Group that can infiltrate mobile phones. The case dates back to 2022, when the Digital Rights Defense Network (R3D) published the Ejército Espía investigation and documented two contracts for Remote Information Monitoring Services with Comercializadora Antsua S.A. de C.V., whose existence the Defense Ministry initially did not acknowledge, according to El Universal. Organizations have documented Pegasus infections targeting journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico. The litigation matters to the binational community tracking surveillance and digital rights issues because it determines what information about spyware technologies is available to the public.
In January 2023, the now-defunct National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI) ordered the documents released, following a review petition by R3D. The Defense Ministry located them but classified their contents as reserved for five years, invoking national security. In June 2024, the Sixteenth District Court in Administrative Matters granted the injunction to R3D, and the collegiate tribunal dismissed the Defense Ministry's appeal. "There is a historical debt; the use of Pegasus dates back to previous administrations," said José Flores of R3D to El Universal. Organizations noted that disclosure of the contracts would advance transparency around the acquisition of surveillance technologies.
Following formal notification, the Defense Ministry must comply with the judicial order and release the public versions of the contracts. R3D has put forward recommendations to regulate the acquisition of surveillance technologies in Mexico, a discussion that will remain open.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.