BUENOS AIRES, July 13 (Itar-Tass) - A number of Argentine officials and politicians became objects of international espionage, the country’s Foreign Hector Timerman said on Friday.
According to the Minister, during the summit of the Southern Common Market /MERCOSUR/, which ended on Friday in Uruguay, one of the participants gave to him "a sealed envelope with a list of more than a hundred names, along with their addresses and passwords of their e-mails." The list includes "opposition leaders, the government and the National Congress" of Argentina, who had been watched.
Argentina’s foreign minister mentioned Vice-President Amado Boudou, who apparently was the victim of electronic surveillance at the time he was head of the national pension fund. The objects of espionage were also governor of the largest province of Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Julio Alak, and former Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana.
"Obviously, we are speaking about a spy network," Timerman said after the MERCOUR summit. The summit’s participants condemned the surveillance, lead by the US intelligence services in Latin America.
Earlier, Brazil demanded formally from the United States an explanation in connection with the revelatory articles published in the Globo newspaper, written on the basis of information journalists had received from a former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden. The articles claimed that over years the US used special programmes to collect data on telephone conversations and the Internet traffic in Brazil and other countries.