On June 27, 2022, the Spanish businessman Jorge Hernandezwhen he had managed to infiltrate the close circle of the former president Pedro Castillocontacted the retired officer of the Naval Intelligence Directorate (DIN), Lieutenant Commander (r) Carlos Barba Dazaqualified in naval intelligence and specialized in people risk analysis.
Since that time, El Español told Barba that Castillo organized a parallel intelligence team controlled from the Government Palace and that required electronic espionage systems, such as the pegasus-software.
The WhatsApp messages between the Spaniard and Carlos Barba, who was recruited by him to the parallel intelligence team, appear in the file opened against the detainee Jorge Hernández Fernández and four other charactersincluding two former heads of the General Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of the Interior (Digimin).
The chat conversations confirm that the Spaniard Jorge Hernández and Carlos Barba, with the knowledge and approval of Pedro Castillo, They were looking for electronic espionage equipment or programs to affect the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, and the coordinator of the Special Team, Colonel PNP Harvey Colchado Huamaníin addition to other opponents of the previous government.
According to the screenshots of the WhatsApp messages from the Spaniard to Carlos Barba, documents that are in the hands of the authorities, Jorge Hernández, since that time, was looking for the israeli tech software pegasusdesigned to monitor everything from phone calls, text messages, emails, calendars and the contacts menu, to interfering with the camera and microphone to monitor the user and their environment.
In the message of June 27, 2022, the Spaniard informs Carlos Barba:
“Hello brother. Take a look at this, let’s see what you think (send PDF document) of what the DINI (National Intelligence Directorate) designed. I am collecting info. Do you know Fredy Torres? He sells to the Navy. I can get the Pegasus. (…) The leg is good. But I’m going to see if he has the teams”.
These weren’t just comments between two fellow conspirators. With the purpose of acquiring Pegasus or other electronic espionage systems, the Spaniard commissioned Carlos Barba to travel to the international fair of Panamawhere these products would be exhibited and sold, between the October 11 and 13, 2022.
The Spanish also commissioned Beard who advised Fujimori congressman Luis Cordero Jon Tay, who would attend the exhibition. Cordero was secretly supporting the Castillo government, the Spaniard confided to Carlos Barba.
But they weren’t just looking for Pegasus.
“(Businessman) fredy torres He has drones for sucking (wiretapping). We already move it. Has TLF Bittium, encrypted. Encrypted phones I need. (…) Better to use Iridium satellite chip. What prices do these teams have? Kompcet (sic) makes equipment for executives of NATO. Their equipment has an internal battery for two hours and is inaudible. (…) What I want to put together is a pod where everything can intervene ”, the Spaniard wrote to Carlos Barba on WhatsApp.
Four months later, the plan was still in motion. Carlos Barba and Fujimori congressman Luis Jon Tay met at the technology fair for telephone spying in Panama, as confirmed by La República when verifying the migratory movement of both characters.
They even contacted the sellers. In the case of the Pegasus software, with the Israeli manufacturer NSO Group. However, no efforts were successful because the companies only contract with government representatives.
The Spaniard was obsessed with acquiring technology for espionage. He wrote to Carlos Barba: “Ask how much budget you should have to buy technological equipment to do good counterintelligence.” To which Carlos Barba replied: “It will be approximately US$150,000 (for) electronic equipment to ensure the communications of the president (Castillo) and his entourage”. Given this, the Spaniard replied that he was in charge of getting the money and Barba was in charge of locating the place to buy it.
He also asks Carlos Barba for listening and geolocation equipment, among others, because “he needed to be able to extract all kinds of information, alluding to cell phones and conversations in general.”
The expert. El Español recruited Carlos Barba Daza for his intelligence qualification. Photo: diffusion
Effective collaboration is an option
In the chats with Carlos Barba, the Spaniard boasted of his ability to interfere in the decisions of former President Pedro Castillo in the appointment of officials for the National Intelligence Directorate (DINI) and the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior (Digimin).
In particular, he mentions his alleged ties to the former heads of the Digimin, the PNP(r) colonels Jorge Cassanova Cubas and Juan Asmat Bucalo.
Sources related to the case They do not rule out that the Spanish Jorge Hernández Fernández accepts effective collaborationwhich would be very bad news for Pedro Castillo.
