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| Courtesy Ensenada.net y tambien Zeta |
There are several reports on the situation at La Bufadora, Ensenada: Last night El Mexicano reported a tense calm and constant vigilance by the Ejidians who are concerned over their "imminent eviction" by the 300 Federales who they believe are in Baja California to carry out the orders of Judge Victor Miquel Bravo Melgoza to evict them over the land dispute which has been continuing for over two years. The Ejidians believe Judge Bravo is obsessed with complying with the orders of the Seventh court instead of waiting for the review - or appeal - process in the Segundo Tribunal Colegiado.
Fearful of a raid early this morning, the Ejidians created three blockades - two on the road leading to La Bufadora and one at the entrance to La Bufadora. Later reports indicate there is one blockade on the road, and of course at the actual entrance to La Bufadora. According to the representative of Ejidians Darvi Batallar Gomez, they received an alert that an eviction would be taking place. He also stated that the Federales have not left the Port of Ensenada, as was rumored.
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| Courtesy Zeta - this looks like two blockades on the road leading to La Bufadora within a short distance of each other |
Lorena Lamas reports that this morning the road to La Bufadora was besieged by the Ejidians who are armed with machetes. As you can see from the picture above, the blockade on the road is made up of large boulders, rocks and hundreds of tires. Only people who actually live in the area have access. The Ejidians have requested a review of the judgement issued by the Seventh District Court for their eviction, however what is unclear (to me at least) is if this review or appeal has been granted or denied. She also reminds us of the arrival of the 300 Federales in Ensenada last weekend and previous attempts by both the Ensenada Municipal Police and the Federales to evict the Ejidians.
Elizabeth Vargas reports this is a partial blockade which begins at Rancho Packard and according to this report, the Ejidians have stated the blockade is only for today.
07/10: Update: Early morning, the blockade is still active.
07/11: Update: Blockade is down, road leading to La Bufadora is open. However at this point it is unknown if the blockade will be re-established, the Ejidians moved the rocks away but still hundreds of tires are on the side of the road.
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Updates on the Hackers.....
Apparently WikiLeaks has been on to the "Hacking Team" for years - since at least 2008. "Hacking Team" with their "sophisticated" systems offer a remote control system with full intelligence on target users even for encrypted communications. Should I say that again ? Even for encrypted communications.
WikiLeaks
You probably already read today Wikileaks published a searchable directory of thousands of the "Hacking Team's" emails with correspondence between the company and the subscribers. The link to that directory is here, and you can use "email ID=5761" to find one email regarding Baja California, this is just one, there are more:
GIZMODO
By, Kate Knibbs (and please check out the other articles under this one, I love these guys and their language- "piece of shit" is so right (c; )
07/11: Update/Edit: Over 400 emails including how the Hacking Team actually set up their systems in Baja California and trained people on how to use it - go to the wikileak link within Kate's article and just type in "Baja California." This wasn't working for me the other day (I was using the number of the email retrieved from Frontera.info of BC), it is working now:
Wikileaks published a searchable Directory of Hacking Team's email
Here is that email:
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| wikileaks - 1 |
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| wikileaks-2 |
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| wikileaks - 3 |
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| wikileaks - 4 |
That was just one email, AFN came up with another one:
What we are learning from AFN and Frontera is that it was the Chief of the Administrative Office of the State of Baja California Loreto Quintero Quintero and the Secretario de Planeacion y Finanzas, Antonio Valladolid Rodriquez who were the signaturers of the subscription of the Baja California State Government to the Hacking Team. AFN noted that BC would be paying 200K Euros to renew the contract - which is about 222K dollars. There have been other statements made by politicos that they have learned the renewal fee is much more.
Following the paper trail Frontera locates more emails which indicate that "Elite by Carga SA de CV" has exclusivity in Baja California to distribute the products of "Hacking Team." Other products purchased by the Municipalities of Baja from Elite by Carga are listed in this article. At this point, there has not been an investigation into whether or not the merchandise purchased by the Municipalities of Baja from this company were actually what was listed on the invoices.
Through it all, Governor Kiko, the PGJE and the SSPE have flatly denied any dealings with the "Hacking Team" or any involvement in spying.
AFN
Loreto Quintero contrata a hackers
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07/10: Edit/Updates on BC and the Hacking Team:
Frontera is coming up with more and more emails; this one shows that Mayor Astiazaron met with the Hacking Team at least once and another meeting was scheduled. Here is that email:
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| WikiLeaks - 1. |
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| Wikileaks - 2. |
The State Comptroller Bladimiro Hernandez Diaz will be acting under the orders of Governor Kiko to investigate the relationship between the state and the "Hacking Team."I'm not sure on this one, maybe we should ask Joe Nalven - but if something similar to this happened in any state of the United States, who would lead the investigation - a state official or an independent from the outside ?
We know now that according to the released emails, the Mayor of Tijuana met with the Hacking Team, the State of Baja California had purchased and was in the process of renewing "Galileo 2015" or the "Remote Control System (RCS)" touched on by GIZMODO above, and Baja California is referred to in code as "SEPYF" and "MVA" - unknown if these are two separate file categories.
This next article may surprise you; maybe in the back of your mind you might be thinking '...well you know this is about the drug war and catching the bad guys...and the Mexican government is just covering their tracks because this information is sensitive." But experts are downplaying the notion that Galileo (aka RCS) system's intent was to weed out the cyber criminals and cartel guys. Experts believe the intent of this software is to "...deliver malware to protest groups and potential dissidents...." Not only that, they say the State of BC was overcharged for the system. This is a really good article, don't miss it and I noticed Glenn Greenwald in the top right hand corner:
Fusion - 07/09/15
The Hacking Team leak shows Mexico was its top client, but why?
by, Rata Fernandez De Castro
Next question is - why did the US FBI plunk down 800K $$$$$ for this crap and what other US agencies or businesses have and use it ? How about US newspapers ? What about US Promotional Agencies ?
end edit.
P.S. If you have BBC TV, the Norwegian production of "The Saboteurs" is on and it is outstanding. (or, how they got rid of the Nazis in the olden days)
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07/11 Edit/Update @5:19pm:
In case you might have missed these, the link to Wikileaks trove of emails is now coming up. I couldn't pull this up the other day. Go to Kate's link of Wikileaks, type in "Baja California", there are over 400 of these emails. Apparently the Hacking Team not only set up their systems in BC, but they trained people on how to use it in BC. I haven't had a chance to read all of them. Also for you sleuths, google in "Elite By Cargo SA de CV" - there are a myriad of different descriptions of what exactly this company sells.
WikiLeaks link to view Baja California emails:
GIZMODO
WikiLeaks Published a Search Directory of Hacking Teams Emails
By, Kate Knibbs
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Before summarizing today's events, here are great articles from the Intercept ( which came out last week and even before ) to get an even deeper perspective of the Hacking Team. Under the second article is the previous coverage of the Hacking Team by the Intercept - all bone chilling reports and keep in mind that Mexico was the Hacking Team's numero uno customer:
The Intercept
Hacking Team Emails Expose Proposed Death Squad Deal, Secret U.K. Sales Push and Much More
by, Ryan Gallagher
The Intercept - note the previous coverage below this article
Hacking Team Employee Jokes About Assassinating ACLU Technologist
by, Micah Lee
The Denials
Aside from the Governor's aghast at the situation and his absolute denial of any involvement with the Hacking Team, along with similar denials from the PGJE and the SSPE, there has been a back up chorus of denials from State Administrators and State Officials:
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| Loreto Quintero Quintero |
1. Loreto Quintero Quintero the Oficial Mayor de Gobierno named by the emails early on as one of the buyers, or signaturers of the Hackers Teams equipment for the state of Baja California completely denied buying any of the equipment. She said, "No hay nada, no hay nada de adquiscion con ese tema." She indicated she wasn't even in Mexicali when the purchase agreement was signed.
La Cronica (Same story Frontera.info)
Quintero niega compra de equipo
2. Elite by Carga SA de CV the BC state government supplier or authorized distributor in the case of the Hacking Team's products denies selling the Government of BC any apparatus or equipment related to the products offered by the Hacking Team as revealed by the emails. However, they did admit to having supplies and customers nationally and internationally selling technology which is at the vanguard as far as the issue of national security:
Frontera
Niega empresa haber vendido sistema espia
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| Courtesy AFN - Mayor of Tijuana |
3. The Mayor of Tijuana Jorge Astiazaron Orci denies ever meeting with the Hacking Team representatives as revealed in the emails or for that matter, buying anything from the Hacking Team. He said: "...pero nunca me reruni con representantes de Hacking Team."
AFN
Solo equipo para policia: Astiazaron
4. To be revealed in the coming days:
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I really will be doing more running around tomorrow, so here are the links to check the reports as they come in for ya'll:
Frontera
AFN
Zeta
WikiLeaks emails (just type in Baja California as your search)
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07/12: Update/Edit: Running out the door here - of course you have all read by now about the escape of El Chapo from Altiplano one of the most secure prisons in Mexico. We'll come back to that and what effect it will have on the local drug-crime situation in BC. Many of us are gasping over this escape - but really, why are we surprised?
end edit.
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