Cartels Try to Hijack New Juarez Police Surveillance Cameras

JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – Mexican authorities say they are continuing to deploy surveillance cameras on the streets of Juarez despite a series of coordinated attacks on the devices Wednesday night.

Eleven cameras that are part of the Centinela (Sentinel) Platform were reportedly shot at, hit with hammers or had their electrical poles set on fire. Gilberto Loya, director of public security for the state of Chihuahua, said Thursday that only two of the devices were knocked over and showed reporters a photo of one of the attackers with a hammer.

“The Sentinel Platform has been under attack since we started the program. Organized crime feels threatened by this system that is being installed throughout the state,” Loya said. “(The cameras) will stop criminals from moving with impunity. We knew (attacks) could happen; we knew they would happen.”

The attacks were followed by a number of fake messages on social media and Loya said police computer experts were investigating whether they were part of a disinformation campaign.

The state police chief said the cameras are already helping to reduce crime in the state’s two largest cities — Juarez and Chihuahua City — and will soon make other communities safer.

In recent years, drug cartel violence has increased, resulting in numerous mass killings, severed heads left in public parks, limbs found in municipal dumps, and bodies left next to elementary schools.

In an earlier interview, Loya told Border Report that the cameras and increased police presence are shrinking the cartels’ sphere of influence in urban areas.

“They are losing the impunity they enjoyed when they were passing through the city. They can’t do that anymore, and of course they don’t like it. They will definitely (attack) again. But we will not back down,” he said.

Sentinel Tower in Downtown Juarez Nears Completion

Chihuahua state authorities gave reporters a glimpse of the 20-story Sentinel Tower in Downtown Juarez on Thursday. The 374-foot-tall concrete and steel building is 45 percent complete, construction supervisor Ignacio Silva Diaz said.

Torre Centinela is under construction in downtown Juarez. (Border Report)

There will be an associated six-storey car park with controlled access, a helicopter pad and its own water treatment plant for 600 police officers and civilian personnel.

The planned height would make it the tallest building in the border area. KTSM reported in 2021 that the tallest building in El Paso is the West Star Building, which stands at 313 feet.

The Sentinel Tower (Torre Centinela) is round and “slender,” but built to withstand strong winds and even a rare earthquake, Silva said. It overlooks the old Balderas bullring on Avenida Francisco Villa, which the government recently reopened.

The tower is intended to serve as a police command center and a surveillance center for more than 3,000 surveillance cameras in Juarez.