Mexico welcomed CIA espionage activities in Mexico during the Cold War and even initiated some of them, according to recently declassified documents published today by the National Security Archive. Found among more than 80,000 pages of newly released JFK assassination files, the records shed light on the remarkably close relationship between the CIA and the Mexican government during the Cold War—including new details on both joint and unilateral CIA operations run out of the Agency’s Mexico City Station—and reveal secrets that have been guarded by the CIA for over half a century.
Among the key findings is that one of the most sweeping joint surveillance programs in Agency history, Operation LIENVOY, was initiated by the Mexican president, not the CIA. "The LIENVOY operation," according to a secret 1964 CIA survey of covert operations in Mexico, "resulted from an approach six years ago from President López Mateos. After considerable discussions, the operation was approved, providing the Mexican Government would include Soviet and Satellite targets, and such other communist targets as were obvious to the Mexican Government to be of concern to the United States." Another stunning CIA document shows that the Agency’s partnership with the Mexican government in spying on the Cuban and Russian embassies continued through at least 1994.
The documents also highlight the CIA’s important role in nurturing and expanding the intelligence capabilities of other countries during the Cold War and the enduring legacy of those, in many cases crucial, relationships. Mexico has continued to engage in widespread use of domestic surveillance; it was the first country in the world to purchase the infamous Israeli Pegasus spyware in the mid-2000s and has deployed it countless times, with targets including journalists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists. Surveillance technology on Mexico’s northern border produces endless streams of data on migrant crossings and arms and narcotics trafficking. These new revelations from the JFK files show how Mexico both invited CIA intervention and worked alongside the U.S. spy agency to become one of the world’s leading surveillance states.