Jesuit human rights center warn of growing state surveillance in Mexico
David AgrenDavid Agren
July 28, 2025
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during a rally at Zocalo Square in Mexico City on March 9. (OSV News photo/Toya Sarno Jordan, Reuters)
Staff at the Jesuit-sponsored Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (also called the Centro Prodh) in Mexico City have been targeted at least twice with sophisticated spyware since 2017. Staff at the center suspect the infamous Pegasus spyware—made by the Israeli cyberintelligence company NSO Group—was surreptitiously deployed against them by the Mexican military, based on reporting by The New York Times and an analysis by Citizen Lab, a watchdog group at the University of Toronto.
The espionage began as Centro Prodh represented families of the 43 victims of the infamous 2014 abduction and murder of teacher-trainees from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, an all-male boarding school with a tradition of political activism. Their families wanted the military investigated for failing to prevent or respond to the atrocity. But the Ayotzinapa families faced stiff resistance from army officials, who stonewalled investigators and disobeyed presidential orders to open their archives.
Then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denied carrying out any espionage activities and even criticized Centro Prodh for its work on the Ayotzinapa case. The former president, who left office last Sept. 30, criticized the center on at least 30 occasions from the bully pulpit of his morning press conference, according to Centro Prodh staff.
But fears of espionage are surfacing again for Centro Prodh and other human rights groups in Mexico. The country recently overhauled a suite of laws in security, military, telecommunications and intelligence matters. The laws centralize power, expand state surveillance capacity and grant more powers to the army, an institution with a history of resisting civilian authority.
More:
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2025/07/28/human-rights-mexico-surveillance-jesuit-251176