Twenty years ago, Fareed Zakaria warned of the rise of illiberal democracies: state entities that employ a democratic governing system, but operate with secrecy and a disrespect for civil liberties. Many fear that a term under the Trump administration might create an environment where the rights of Americans and reverence for the rule of law will deteriorate. The fact of the matter is that this prospect is unlikely, even with a president that shares a worrisome and warm relationship with the posterchild of illiberal democracies, Vladimir Putin.
Within the governing framework of the United States lie potent and imposing protocols that help prevent against any megalomaniacal politician. Nevertheless, the threat of illiberal democracy persists for the United States in the form of geopolitical relationships. The case here is Mexico.
On September 26, 2014, 43 male students in buses headed to commemorate the deaths of civilians and students during the Dirty War were stopped by local police, never to be seen again. Independent investigations revealed that the local police delivered the students to be killed by Guerreros Unidos, a crime syndicate previously part of the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel.
Further revelations exposed a corruption scandal that involved the Governor of Guerrero and the Mayor of Iguala. To an extent, it seemed as if a sense of justice was beginning to develop even though the families of those 43 students would live on knowing that their own government officials violently acted against innocent beings.
Recent news revealed that the team of international investigators was targeted by the Pegasus spyware throughout their period in Mexico. The Pegasus spyware, which infiltrates the smartphones of the targets in order to monitor every bit of activity, is a critical piece of the story as it is commonly only sold to government entities. The news coincides with a statement made in 2016 by the panel of investigators that they could not solve the case due to a “sustained campaign of harassment, stonewalling, and intimidation against them.”
Such attempts at subterfuge involved lack of cooperation from government agencies, coordinated attacks at their credibility orchestrated by Mexican media outlets, and a punitive criminal investigation into the government official who appointed the independent panel.
More recent news exhibits successful attempts to infect the devices of journalists, anti-corruption activists, and human rights lawyers with the Pegasus spyware. The Israel-based cyber warfare organization that sells the spyware, NSO Group, claims the tools are exclusively intended to undermine terrorist groups and drug cartels. Before providing the spyware, NSO screens the country’s human rights record, but it is difficult to assess the use of the spyware after the screening process is completed.
To say the absolute least, this should be concerning to everyone living under the rule of government, not just for Mexicans. For Mexican citizens, it is another agonizing event in a modern history encumbered by violence, corruption, apathy, and blood. Recently, the United Nations has called for the Mexican government to establish an independent inquiry into smart phone surveillance. Unfortunately, this call will not be substantiated as any independent inquiry produced under President Peña Nieto’s direction will fail to conclude anything that can damage the PRI’s chances in the 2018 presidential election.
The scariest aspect of this scandal is that governments commanded by parasitic and ego-driven leaders now wield another tool to supplement the weight of the state: a piece of spyware that can leverage every cell phone in a country against anyone seeking rule of law. Illiberal democracy can go viral with a simple phishing scam. Mexico is not the first or the last country to suffer from this vice.
As for why this matters to the United States, it is in our geopolitical interest to surround ourselves with countries that respect civil liberties of citizens as protected by rule of law. If one of our closest neighbors continues down the road of illiberalism with a candidate, who is leading the polls, hostile towards our current administration, the world will appear colder for Americans.
