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In 2024, the government of El Salvador sought to purchase unnamed spyware marketed as “better than Pegasus,” according to a report by the US media outlet The Newsground, but abandoned the purchase due to its cost: $10.9 million.
The article reports that the government sought software to infiltrate Android phones to monitor phones, track locations, and capture files. Infection vectors included online ads.
The publication revealed the names of two men who, on behalf of the Presidency of El Salvador, were part of a delegation to Romania for a product demonstration: Erick Altamirano, an executive at the Salvadoran company Data & Graphics; and a government representative named Juan Francisco Flores Molina.
El Faro verified that Flores Molina made this trip, and also that, until April 2020, he was a Cavalry Major in the Joint General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMCFA) of El Salvador.
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An Army medical evaluation form shows Flores Molina’s nomination for promotion to the next rank of Lieutenant Colonel, according to information that El Faro accessed through DDoSecrets, an organization that obtained a leak of Salvadoran Armed Forces documents.
The Joint General Staff, composed of the heads of all three branches of the Armed Forces of El Salvador—the Army, Air Force, and Navy—is where the branches’ operations are coordinated.
In the past, Flores Molina was also part of the Presidential General Staff, serving as a bodyguard for former President Mauricio Funes.
Documents and sources
The Newsground published documents that it asserts it was obtained independently from the firms involved in the negotiations, as well as testimony from two people close to the procurement process for the spyware.
The outlet reports that it was the Office of the President of the Republic of El Salvador who attempted to purchase the software in 2024 through the intermediary firm Data & Graphics.
This Salvadoran company would appear as the buyer, although the system was to be acquired for use by the Presidential Intelligence Office.
Presidency of the Republic of El Salvador through Data Graphics, acting as a reseller,” states a page of a draft contract dated December 24, 2024, published by the outlet.
El Faro spoke with journalist Matt Bernardini, the author of The Newsground’s investigation who specializes in investigations into intelligence and financial crimes. In previous reports, he revealed the purchase of spyware in Myanmar, Iraq, Venezuela, and the United States.
“The source of the information regarding the negotiation for the purchase of spyware by the Government of El Salvador is trustworthy, and is a source that has helped me in the past to write other similar stories about this type of purchase made by other countries,” Bernardini told El Faro.
The Newsground reports that the seller of this software is a small firm based in Dubai: Masayoshi FZCO.
The representative of Masayoshi FZCO is Constantinos Nikita, a citizen of Cyprus who told The Newsground he is a partner in the company.
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Nikita signed a preliminary agreement to sell the software to the Government of El Salvador through Data & Graphics, according to a contract obtained by The Newsground.
The article also mentions an Israeli citizen as one of the intermediaries in the negotiations: Tomer Bar, a consultant who previously worked at the Israeli cyberintelligence firm Jenovice, the manufacturer of the “Piranha” spy tool.
Piranha obtains remote access to Wi-Fi networks to geolocate targets and intercept communications. Tomer Bar also owns a company that produces tahini in Mexico.
US Embassy contractor
The intermediary firm Data & Graphics is a US Embassy contractor; among its operations is the purchase of computer equipment for the National Civil Police in El Salvador.
This contractor has also managed projects funded by philanthropic funds administered with Embassy support.
Asked by El Faro, the US Embassy in El Salvador denied awareness of the contractor’s involvement in efforts to procure spyware. “The Embassy has no knowledge of the spyware purchase referred to in that article,” an Embassy spokesperson responded.
Data & Graphics executive Alaind Erick Altamirano did not respond to an interview request made by phone and email on April 28.
The Communications Secretariat of the Office of the President also did not offer comment.
Fallout from Pegasus
According to The Citizen Lab and Access Nowat least 35 people, including journalists and activists in El Salvador, were targeted with Pegasus spyware between July 2020 and November 2021, including 22 members of The Lighthouse.
The investigators did not explicitly name the government of El Salvador responsible for the hacks in their report, but they did point to a Pegasus operator in El Salvador.
Pegasus is made by the Israeli company NSO Group, who claims to sell only to governments. In 2022, The Lighthouse filed a pending lawsuit against the NSO Group in federal court in California.
Last year, Trump’s former ambassador to El Salvador, Ronald Johnson, told the US Senate that “I don’t doubt that Pegasus could have been acquired” in El Salvador. Johnson said he even warned Salvadoran authorities against spying on US Embassy employees. He is now ambassador to Mexico.
After The Newsground’s article on subsequent efforts by El Salvador to obtain advanced spyware, Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton respond on.
“I wonder who actually makes this unnamed spyware? EU & Romanian authorities should absolutely dig into what is going on here,” he wrote. “Big Picture: seems to me like El Salvador’s conclusion after getting caught abusing Pegasus was: time to upgrade.”
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On April 16, Salvadoran journalists and human rights defenders testified on human rights violations in El Salvador before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington.
“Our experience with Pegasus was now a couple years ago,” Noah Bullock, the executive director of Cristosal and one of those who was illegally surveyed in El Salvador.
He added: “But that experience of the restriction of freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of association, has now been extended to the entirety of the Salvadoran population.”
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