By: Staff Writer
October 16, 2026
A new report highlights artificial intelligence as a tool for the production of harm in Latin America.
The report, In the Crosshairs 2: An Overview of Digital Threats in Latin America, produced by Derechos Digitales, said that AI not only as a tool for innovation, but also as part of broader infrastructures of power, classification, control, and the production of harm, whose effects do not fall equally on everyone.
“A clear example is the generation of sexualized deepfakes, which has become a form of violence and control directed particularly at women. However, it is important to note that these new technologies do not replace more traditional forms of repression and control. In Central America, for example, multiple mechanisms persist that combine technological tools, restrictive legal reforms, and political persecution, operating simultaneously and reinforcing one another.”
The report added: “Media coverage varies across countries, many incidents are never reported, and in contexts of censorship or a weak press, a significant share of events remains outside the public record.”
Governments and companies, acting separately or in concert, are increasingly being called out for surveillance, censorship, violence and control in digital spaces, practices that, according to the organization, are undermining the exercise of human rights across the region.
“These practices are not so different between authoritarian and more democratic regimes,” Ximena Cuzcano, a digital security and resilience analyst at Derechos Digitales, tells EL PAÍS. “In Venezuela, spyware tools are used against activists, journalists and ordinary citizens. In Argentina, cyberpatrolling has been authorized; the authorities monitor people without oversight. Someone who is critical of the government or belongs to the opposition cannot speak freely because they are already being monitored through automated systems.”
The report also said: “Regional monitoring identified relevant regulatory developments across several Latin American countries that directly affect the exercise of human rights in the digital environment. Legislative and regulatory initiatives related to state surveillance, restrictions on freedom of expression—including censorship mechanisms—and restrictions on access to public information emerged repeatedly. These themes reflect state responses that shape the political and legal context enabling—and in some cases legitimizing—the digital security incidents analyzed in the following sections.
“The regulatory developments described reflect the status of each legislative or regulatory process as of the end of the period under review. Given the dynamic nature of these processes, some initiatives may have progressed, been amended, or been shelved since then. Their evolution will therefore remain part of the ongoing monitoring…”
In Latin America, an additional layer of complexity arises from the region’s reliance on imported technologies. Because governments use software developed abroad, they are exposed to tools they do not fully understand, which deepens their dependence on the countries that produce them.
“Latin American states adopt these technologies from other countries, for example, Israeli spyware,” explains Cuzcano. “The same is true of surveillance practices. Other cases are not even visible. Afterwards, these practices and technologies are quickly legalized.”