Spies and Vaccines | Mauricio Macri’s relations with Israel on arms and cybersecurity



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Among the trail of names starting to resonate for the elections, the scandal of Pegasus for the electronic espionage which scandalized the whole world has hardly gone unnoticed, despite the fact that in Argentina there is the mega-cause of spying and several Argentines have been spied on by the macrism. The media company lowered the visibility of the espionage which affects the world and the opposition preferred to question the government on a communication between the negotiators of Russia Yes Argentina by vaccines. Contrary to the desired objective, the text revealed a strong negotiating attitude on the Argentine side and in no way subject to the supposed ideological affinities that Macrismo denounced.

The complaint about the espionage mounted with the Pegasus software that the Israeli company created and markets ONS Group It came from independent sources such as the organization Forbiden Stories and Amnesty International. Around 50,000 cell phones and computers have been spied on around the world. In just a thousand of these phones studied there are twelve heads of state, including the current presidents of France and Mexico, Emmanuel Macron Yes Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 189 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 businessmen.

On Thursday, Reporters Without Borders lodged a complaint with the Israeli government for spying on journalists, Macron ordered an investigation and the Mexican prosecution announced that he had one of these cases that could be prosecuted. The Moroccan government has denied the espionage charges and the Hungarians have warned that they will not release information, while in Israel they claim it is a smear campaign. The NSO company claimed that it only sold this spy program to the police and intelligence agencies of certain governments.

Macrismo has maintained close ties with Israel’s weapons and cybersecurity complex. Former President Macri visited Israel in 2006, when he was deputy and head of the PRO; in 2014 the future Minister of Security of the macro-government traveled, Patricia bullrich, and in 2017, when Macri was president, there was the first unusual visit by an Israeli prime minister to Argentina. On this trip, the right Benjamin netanyahu He arrived accompanied by a group of businessmen, most of them linked to repressive paraphernalia and cyber espionage, among which were representatives of the NSO group.

Most of the agreements reached were about security. At the time, the Israeli media highlighted these agreements and the acquisition of the Pegasus software from the NSO group was mentioned.

In any case, the illegal espionage device gave proof of its existence that year, at the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization and then at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires in 2018. a determined that the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) had illegally spied 403 journalists, 28 academics, 58 businessmen and civil society figures.

More recently, the report of the Bicameral Commission for the Control and Inspection of Intelligence Agencies and Activities confirmed that spying on politicians, social leaders, intellectuals and journalists was a consolidated practice in the AFI during the government of Mauricio Macri. Espionage combined wiretapping with bogus legal excuses – in the case of political prisoners – or with Pegasus-like systems that intervene on the spying person’s cell phone.

The complaint from Forbiden Stories and Amnesty International’s security lab follows a previous complaint from the company in 2018. Cambridge Analytica, which collected information from users of Facebook for manipulation techniques in political campaigns. At that time, business executives were appearing before a commission of inquiry in Britain. In their statement, they admitted to intervening in this way in Britain’s Brexit referendum and in elections in other countries, including Argentina in 2015.

At that time, the owner of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg, said his company was not involved in the espionage. In 2019, WhatsApp, another of its companies, denounced the NSO group for having used its messaging service to intervene on 1,400 telephones in twenty countries, including Argentina.

The indignation around the world has its explanation because the systematic recourse to espionage is considered as a tool of authoritarian governments, of weak republican and democratic intensity. The lack of repercussions in the media company and in the local political opposition confirmed the quality of government they maintained and exercised. The proliferation of evidence shows that espionage was used systematically during the United Government for Change.

While downplaying mass cyber espionage, hegemonic media focused their criticism on a letter from the presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini to the Russian Direct Investment Fund which markets the vaccine Sputnik V. For Patricia Bullrich, so closely linked to the issue of espionage, Nicolini’s letter “is overwhelming proof of the political decision that has left us without millions of vaccines, with thousands of deaths, without economy and without education”.

But the letter is an example of the opposite as it shows the Argentinian negotiator doing a strong claim without breaking the diplomatic rules of the game. Still, there would be reason to criticize the opposition if the second dose of Sputnik, the delay of which prompted the demand, had not arrived the following week. Millions of doses made in the country with the active ingredient that the Gamaleya Center has now sent from Russia will be available in early August.

Contrary to what the opposition wanted to show, Nicolini’s letter showed the energetic and careful action needed in a crisis situation like the one the whole world is facing due to the pandemic and the heavy pressure on the markets to get vaccines.

Under the Vaccine Act, the government has an obligation to notify Congress of negotiations. Everything is transmitted to the Health Commission, made up of lawmakers from the ruling party and the opposition, who receive this confidential information. For an ideological question, the letter’s circulation was intended to interfere with a very delicate negotiation process in such a difficult global context. In this way, the vaccine supply and the lives of thousands of people were put at risk. There was concern within the government that this leak involved a complete disregard for the minimum rules of the game.

The opposition has been very critical of Sputnik and ensures that millions of vaccines have been obtained Pfizer. Pfizer itself admitted that it could not have met the demands of this moment, as it did not in Chile, for example. The transandine country is an example widely used by the macrismo. This week, the Chilean government has decided to approve Sputnik V to ensure the supply of vaccines since the two who support their program have failed. Chinese Sinovac, showed a very low vaccination rate. And Pfizer has further delayed its deliveries. From now on, Chile will have recourse to Sputnik V, just like Europe.

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