"Spying on friends is totally unacceptable" German Chanciller Angela Merkel said when talking about the United States espionage she believes she was a victim of.

Brazil and Mexico were only the tip of the iceberg when information leaks provided by former CIA and NSA technician Edward Snowden, indicated that these institutions were spying on high level officials of these countries.

The British newspaper "The Guardian" revealed more information of these leaks were it is stated that 35 world leaders have been spied on since 2006. Among that list is Mexican Presidents Felipe Calderon in 2010 and Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012 who was a presidential candidate back then.

The information also appeared in the Spanish newspaper "El Pais" where they added that it was not necessary to be an enemy of the United States to be spied by them.

New reports also indicated that the espionage happened on several levels of intensity as well as varied penetration grades according to the interest the United States had on the subject. Some countries received preferential treatment, those countries were the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Through information provided by White House officials and the pentagon, they obtained the leaders telephone numbers, in some cases the information was provided by themselves.

Lately, Mexico, Brazil, France, Spain and Germany have taken different measures to demand an explanation from the United States, from interviews with their Ambassadors to even canceling visits to the country.

The United States has not accepted having spied on the before mentioned countries directly, but they have pointed out that they will modify the way they compile information from foreign countries to avoid any actions which could harm them. Some leaders have even recognized that the vigilance on behalf of the United States has helped them, and even prevented an attack on Germany, but the United States could have opted to request the information they needed directly, it was not necessary to spy on them, as the mexican phrase goes "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".

Today Germany and France announced that they will pressure the United States to create a new code of conduct which will dictate the actions necessary when compiling information on foreign countries.

Brenda.Colon@sandiegored.com