IACHR Will Examine “Illegal Surveillance” of Journalists and Activists in El Salvador

San Salvador, Mar 15 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will “examine” the allegations of “illegal surveillance” that journalists and human rights activists are facing in El Salvador, Amnesty International (AI) reported on Tuesday. “The IACHR will examine widespread illegal surveillance through the Pegasus spy program against journalists and civil society in El Salvador in a hearing to be held on Wednesday,” AI said in a statement. He added that together with the organizations Access Now and Citizen Lab, they will “provide their expert opinion” related to a joint investigation published in January “identifying the use of the well-known NSO Group Pegasus spy program against journalists and members of civil society organizations in El Salvador.” “Technical experts from Amnesty International's Security Laboratory reviewed the results and independently verified forensic evidence showing that Pegasus has been abused in the country,” the international organization said. Belissa Guerrero Rivas, AI's regional advocacy coordinator for the Americas, said the software “is being used as a weapon to silence journalists in El Salvador and around the world.” “The IACHR hearing is a key step towards the accountability of people who have been illegally attacked by spyware,” he stressed. This hearing “is the first of the IACHR on cybersurveillance in the country” and was requested by the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), the Foundation for Due Process (DPLF), the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil), as well as Salvadoran media El Faro and Gato Encerrado. The former vice president of El Salvador and secretary of the opposition Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), Óscar Ortiz, recently said that his country's police used the Pegasus program in the past for “georeferencing” and not for espionage. When asked in a radio interview if “that Pegasus could not spy on journalists”, Ortiz said that “no, because it is also forbidden”. Research by Access Now and Citizen Lab indicates that there are “35 cases of journalists and civil society members whose phones were successfully infected with NSO's Pegasus spyware between July 2020 and November 2021.” He explained that “the objectives included journalists from El Faro, GatoEncerrado, La Prensa Gráfica, Revista Digital Disruptiva, El Mundo newspaper, El Diario de Hoy and two independent journalists”, as well as members of the organizations DTJ Foundation, Cristosal and another NGO. The Communications Secretary of Nayib Bukele Executive Sofia Medina said in a statement in January that “the Government of El Salvador is in no way related to Pegasus and is not a customer of NSO Group.” CHIEF hs/sa/laa