Mexico: The walls will have eyes

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Officials in Mexico City hope installing thousands of high-resolution cameras is an answer to street crime. The announcement this week of plans to plant 8,000 cameras around the city over the next three years came after a local university’s surveillance camera captured the images of two suspects in a bombing attempt downtown two weeks ago.

Nearly half of the cameras will be around public schools and parks, with most of the rest in high-crime areas. The cameras will be tied into control centers to help in case of natural disasters and other emergencies.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said street crime has fallen 40% in the tourist-heavy historic center since the city installed 100 cameras there six years ago.

One of the suspects in the recent bombing attempt died when the explosives blew up, apparently before he reached the apparent target, a ranking Mexico City police official who authorities said had run afoul of drug traffickers. A woman wounded in the blast, who was seen in the surveillance video walking closely with the main suspect, is under investigation.

-- Ken Ellingwood in Mexico City