Overview
- The state government formally inaugurated the Torre Centinela in Ciudad Juárez this week, announcing the start of its operations as a central command for Chihuahua’s security strategy.
- Officials say the 20‑floor building houses thousands of cameras, nearly 1,800 license‑plate readers, mobile monitoring units and anti‑drone systems to feed a data‑fusion center on the 18th floor.
- Federal security ministers and the Ciudad Juárez municipal government did not attend the opening, and the state has not fully integrated municipal and federal access to the tower’s systems.
- The state previously offered space for U.S. federal agencies to place analysts but withdrew that invitation after reports of two CIA agents’ deaths in the Sierra Tarahumara, even as U.S. consular officials attended and praised the project.
- Opposition officials criticize the roughly 4,700 million pesos project as costly and symbolic, while the governor cites a 24 percent drop in average daily homicides this year as evidence the model may be producing results and the public will watch for operational proof.