While the National Intelligence Center (CNI) seems to learn of foreign intelligence agencies’ operations only through international media reports, it demonstrates a surprising—and selective—efficiency when it comes to monitoring, locating, interfering with, or attacking those who expose the vulnerabilities of the very system it is ostensibly tasked with protecting.
The case of journalist Guadalupe Lizárraga starkly illustrates this paradox. On Friday afternoon, while we were conversing via WhatsApp, I witnessed—in real time—an attempt to breach the security of her email account. Lizárraga, the founder of Los Ángeles Press, has spent over two decades investigating corruption, narco-politics, forced disappearances, and the ties between political power and organized crime. Her recent investigations into networks of narco-corruption in Baja California have led to indictments by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). Her work is unsettling because it reveals precisely what power structures would prefer to keep hidden.
Attempted hack of Guadalupe Lizárraga’s email account during a call with Hazael Sayavedra.
Attempted hack of Guadalupe Lizárraga’s email account during a call with Hazael Sayavedra on May 15, 2026, at 6:06 PM.
This pattern is not an isolated incident. Senator Lilly Téllez has reported hacks and threats targeting her personal phone lines. My own “showcase” accounts were also compromised early last month: intruders gained access without altering passwords, hijacked active WhatsApp sessions without triggering verification codes, and my phone began to run sluggishly while its battery drained rapidly. These are not coincidental occurrences. They are part of an ecosystem of surveillance and harassment that, in Mexico, has evolved from classic espionage into hybrid mechanisms of digital intimidation, reputational damage, and narrative control.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador lied to us. For years, he repeatedly assured us that under his administration, “no one was being spied upon.” He stated it categorically: “We do not spy on anyone.” However, the public evidence contradicts him. Court documents from the litigation between WhatsApp and NSO Group in the United States revealed that between April and May 2019—barely into the new administration’s six-year term—456 Mexican phone numbers were targeted with Pegasus via WhatsApp. Mexico accounted for 37% of all attacks recorded globally during that campaign. The operation was linked to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).
However, contemporary espionage is not limited to malware. Investigations by Article 19 documented, in 2020, a structure coordinated from within Notimex to target journalists using bot farms, fake accounts, and digital smear campaigns. Among the journalists explicitly identified as targets was Guadalupe Lizárraga, alongside instructions—attributed to Notimex’s then-director, Sanjuana Martínez—to amplify attacks and discredit journalistic investigations.
The Lizárraga case further documents a sustained pattern of tracking, geolocation, and informal surveillance linked to structures within the Public Prosecutor’s Office—specifically the SEIDO unit—and intelligence agencies. Between 2016 and 2018, agents from the PGR/SEIDO/AIC attempted to take her into custody for questioning regarding her investigations into the Wallace case; subsequently, official orders for her “location and appearance” were issued with an “urgent and confidential” classification, in addition to physical surveillance and photographic documentation conducted outside courtrooms.
The organization ARTICLE 19 documented raids on their premises, doxxing campaigns, false alterations to their Wikipedia biography, and attacks against their family circle—including the unlawful deprivation of their daughter’s liberty in 2019.
Other instances of government surveillance targeting journalists and human rights defenders occurred in 2023, involving new Pegasus attacks against members of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Centro ProDH), who were representing victims of military abuses.
AMLO lied. Espionage did not disappear in 2018. It simply became more sophisticated, more opaque, and more diversified.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s Law
Far from rectifying this problem, in July 2025, Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration passed the new Law on the National Investigation and Intelligence System for Public Security. This legislation was accompanied by reforms granting the CNI (National Intelligence Center) and the armed forces unrestricted access to biometric, tax, telecommunications, and geolocation databases—all without effective judicial oversight.
Organizations such as R3D and ARTICLE 19 have warned that these reforms legalize mechanisms of mass surveillance and entrench an architecture of state control characterized by insufficient checks and balances.
The problem is no longer solely illegal espionage. The problem is the institutional normalization of surveillance.
A Dangerous Inversion of Priorities
The paradox is stark: the Mexican intelligence apparatus appears incapable of anticipating foreign espionage operations, criminal infiltrations, or international money-laundering networks; yet, it demonstrates an immense capacity to monitor, discredit, and wear down journalists, activists, and critical voices.
It is easier to persecute journalists than to confront transnational criminal structures. It is politically more profitable to attack the messenger than to dismantle the networks of corruption that journalism exposes.
This inversion of priorities erodes democracy from its very foundations, as well as the rule of law. It fosters self-censorship, degrades the quality of public information, and destroys public trust in institutions. Mexico urgently needs a professional intelligence system—one with genuine judicial oversight, operational transparency, and strict democratic limits. Freedom of the press is constitutionally protected; warrantless espionage remains illegal.
A government apparatus that fears journalistic truth more than foreign spies or organized crime cannot move forward. It simply bleeds out slowly, in silence.
Source: losangelespress.org
