Hackers Leak Thousands of Files from SEDENA, Including Culiacanazo Reports

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

On the night of Thursday, September 29, one of the biggest violations of the Mexican Government's cybersecurity systems occurred, a group of hacktivists managed to penetrate the systems of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) and access thousands of documents. confidential.

Among them, some that reveal the state of health of president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO); differences between the heads of the country's main security corporations, Sedena and the Secretary of the Navy (Semar); Similarly, and new information about what happened in the "Culiacanazo".

This information was shared with the journalist Carlos Loret de Mola by the group responsible for the hack, known as Guacamaya, a group identified as a group from Central America that defends nature.

Culiacanazo Reports

One of the documents reveals how the children of Chapo Guzmán "bent" the Mexican government in the operation known as Culiacanazo, which occurred on October 17, 2019.

In one of the emails reviewed, a special part of the Culiacanazo is given as an example so that the members of the National Guard write this type of report in this way. The document summarizes what happened:

"The Army establishes that at 3:15 p.m. "the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán was carried out, fulfilling an arrest warrant issued on April 2, 2018, by the Federal Court of Columbia in the United States, for crimes of organized crime for the purpose of stockpiling and trafficking weapons, kidnapping, collection of flat and crimes against health.

"The military report explains that two minutes later, 'the security forces invite Ovidio to persuade his brothers to cease their hostile attitude', and that for this he communicated directly with "Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, ordering him to order the cessation of the attacks, but his brother responded with a refusal and made threats against the military personnel and their families".

The leaked report states there were nine and not eight dead from the Culiacanazo on October 17, 2019. 

Sedena had assured that there were eight deaths, but internal reports indicate an additional victim, whose charred remains and bodies with bullet wounds were in official local police units, as well as in a National Guard truck.

The military report states: "At 7:30 p.m., the order was received from the Citizen President of the Republic to cease the operation to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López."

Although the official narrative is not modified, the schedule details open questions about the duration of the operation. At the time, President López Obrador justified that if he had not released the son of Chapo Guzmán, up to 200 people would have died. A week after the events, part of the justification was that the search warrant was not obtained on time, but lack of planning was also accused and support from the US Department of Justice.

Clash Over Security Policies

One more piece of information that Latinus reveals is that there is a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Rafael Ojeda, to the Secretary of Defense, General Luis Crescencio Sandoval, in which they show their differences on security at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), dated June 22.

In one of the paragraphs written by Admiral Ojeda, the following can be read:

"This is not a question of numbers, but of coordination between institutions, always respecting our areas of competence...never with the intention of seeking protagonism."

Another national security fact that they released is how many Army personnel are stationed at each of the Tijuana border crossings, and at each tactical point.

They emphasize that on the southern border, in Cancun, the case is "especially serious," according to Latinus' note, since in the Cancun airport terminal the Defense admits that the optimal thing is to have 56 elements, but there are only 14. At some times, the presence of personnel is three soldiers, which puts this area in "conditions of critical weakness", which would leave an open door for all kinds of illegal traffic.

 

Guacamaya Hackers

This is not the first time Guacamaya hackers have carried out this type of leak, since September 19, the group announced that as part of its Operation Repressive Forces, they would carry out leaks in Peru, El Salvador, Chile, and Colombia, in addition to Mexico.

They leaked 5 Terabytes of emails from the Colombian Attorney General's office, which have been linked to various acts of corruption, as well as links in drug trafficking and paramilitary networks, persecution politics, and assassinations. They also shared a statement that branded the Prosecutor's Office as one of the most corrupt organizations.

Of supposed Central American origin, the organization denounces "five centuries of genocide, terricide, looting and rape" in the territory of "Abya Yala", as it calls America. In this context, and in accordance with the background of various sites specialized in hacktivist groups, Guacamaya protests against military interventions and large mining and oil companies, among others. Germán Fernández, Director of Operations at CronUp Cybersecurity, explains that it is a hacktivist group, which, unlike traditional hackers, acts for political or social reasons, not for money or corporate interests.

Sources LatinUS, El Universal, Infobae, El Universal