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Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
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20 Jul, 6 tweets, 4 min read
1. The #PegasusProject reveals the extent of the police state created in #Mexico under presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto: using software from the Israeli firm #NSO, some 15,000 numbers were potentially hacked, including 25+ journalists...

theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…
2. ...and no less than 50 people close to #AMLO, then a presidential candidate, including his wife, sons, brothers, advisors, even his cardiologist.

One of the hacked journalists, Cecilio Pineda Birto, was subsequently assassinated.

theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/…
3. The software was originally purchased by Calderón -NSO's first international client- whose Defense Department made a massive purchase in 2011. His Security Minister García Luna was also heavily involved in Israeli-exported spy technologies.

sinembargo.mx/20-07-2021/400…
4. The government of Peña Nieto even used the software to spy on human-rights lawyers working on the case of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa.

But of course, NSO claims it only sold to "vetted governmental clients."

nytimes.com/2017/06/19/wor…
5. To make matters worse, #Israel is refusing to extradite Tomás Zerón, the torturer of #Ayotzinapa witnesses and a key importer and abuser of Pegasus, also wanted on corruption charges. Protection of NSO or retaliation for Mexico's stance on Palestine?

haaretz.com/israel-news/te…
6. Lest we forget what Mexico was like before 2018, this is another reminder. The scandal should provide an opportunity to consider how foreign powers actively helped create the authoritarian monster of previous administrations through arms and, in this case, spying technology.

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More from @KurtHackbarth

Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
19 Jul
1. In another attempt to disqualify Mexico's referendum on prosecuting crimes of prior administrations, the Right's new coordinated talking point is that the question is "too complicated."

True to form, @TheEconomist incorporates this in another of its amusing anti-#AMLO rants.
2. The original, crystal-clear question submitted by the president was modified by the Supreme Court, a question the magazine's hacks only mention in passing after mockingly leading you to believe the "absurdist" wording was written by AMLO. Here's the original text:
3. "Do you agree or not that the competent authorities, in accordance with the law and applicable procedures, investigate and, as appropriate, sanction the alleged commission of crimes by former presidents [names] before, during, and after their respective administrations?"
Read 7 tweets
Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
12 Jul
THREAD: In my latest piece in Jacobin, I lay out a (non-exhaustive) list of areas @PartidoMorenaMx should tackle in the next session of Congress in order to maintain its mid-term momentum. These include:

jacobinmag.com/2021/07/mexico…
1. TAX REFORM: The government's own figures tell the story: large earners pay 1.3% in income tax while everyone else pays an average of 25.4%.

*Raise taxes on the rich and earmark revenues for national health care or a massive solar investment.*

jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/06/…
2. MINING: The conquest continues - between 2010-2018, five times more gold was extracted from Mexico than during the entire colonial period.

*Take on mining companies (largely controlled by Canadians & Americans) and immediately nationalize lithium.

jornada.com.mx/2019/08/21/soc…
Read 11 tweets
Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
10 Jul
1. On May 3, we bought two, 20 kg cylinders of natural gas for $800 pesos in Oaxaca. Today, the same two cost $928, a 16% increase.

In response to these & other increases, #AMLO announced this week the creation of a public gas distributor. Of course, the Right went apoplectic...
2. Either arguing against intervention in the "market" or contending there were "other ways" to control these increases, without saying what they were.

Three companies control the gas market here. This is an oligopoly, something the Right used to be against -or pretended to be.
3. Mexico is full of such oligopolies, from media (TV, newspapers) to pharmaceuticals to banks to supermarkets. And every time AMLO goes after one of them, the response is vicious. Just look at how the drug companies have been trying to protect theirs:

infobae.com/america/mexico…
Read 6 tweets
Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
4 Jul
1. "On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed...
2. "Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy. That self-deception started early.
3. "When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible.
Read 12 tweets
Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
2 Jul
THREAD: Mexico's August 1 referendum as to whether to investigate former presidents & other actors for past crimes will be hindered by the fact that the National Electoral Institute is only setting up 57,000 precincts, a fraction of last month's midterms.

diariolavozdelsureste.com/2021/06/instal…
2. The Institute claims it simply doesn't have the money to set up more precincts. But as @HernanGomezB points out, the real truth is that the directors blow their budget on obscene salaries, benefits, bonuses, "advisers", meal budgets, and more.

heraldodemexico.com.mx/opinion/2021/7…
3. The number of precincts is important, because the referendum needs a 40% participation rate in order to be legally binding. Offering fewer places to vote -with the longer lines that will ensue- is effectively a way to sabotage the vote.
Read 5 tweets
Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture
2 Jul
1. El día del #1DeJulio de 2018 estuvimos realizando observación electoral en Ixtapalapa; de hecho, nos tocó en la misma casilla que @danieljadue, el próximo presidente de Chile.

Vimos, sin poder hacer nada, muchísima evidencia de compra de votos, "casas amigo", todo.
2. Después del cierre de la votación, tuvimos que retirarnos para preparar nuestra primera transmisión para @jacobin. En el taxi de regreso, oímos a Meade reconocer su derrota en la radio. Poco después, siguió Anaya. En el centro, la gente empezaba a salir.
3. El festejo. Incluso había personas que, por antecedente histórico, estaban listas para pelear otra fraude. No resultó ser necesario.
Read 4 tweets

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