📹Security and prisons· 2019-2026
Cameras and facial recognition: who wins those tenders
The Interior Ministry went from under 6,000 to more than 20,000 cameras. In one key tender, a certification requirement left only two bidders in the race.
Figure published by the sources
US$ 638.913 el software de reconocimiento facial más US$ 238.178 por tres años de mantenimiento (El Observador, 2020); más de US$ 100 millones de inversión tecnológica anunciada por el ministerio en 2026
Bodies involved
Ministerio del Interior
What it is
Video surveillance is the Interior Ministry's main technology bet. Telenoche reported in May 2024 that the system had gone from under 6,000 cameras at the start of the term to 12,000, with a target of 14,000 and artificial intelligence software to generate automatic alerts; according to then General Commissioner Gabriel Lima, the software aims to detect movements such as a person about to fire a shot or signalling for help in front of a camera. In April 2026 the ministry itself announced an investment of more than US$ 100 million and over 20,000 cameras installed, alongside licence-plate reading gantries, thermal drones and mobile units. Since 2020 that network has also included facial recognition software bought through a public tender.
What is questioned
El Observador reported on 16 March 2019 that, in the tender to install 1,000 cameras donated by China in Artigas, Rivera, Cerro Largo and Rocha, the Interior Ministry rejected the extensions two firms requested to obtain a letter from Huawei accrediting them as authorised distributors or integrators, a disqualifying requirement of the specification; it cited service reasons and the urgency of installing the cameras, and held that as a disqualifying requirement it could not be submitted after bids were opened. Cabo Norte, Servinfo and Sonda withdrew once they learned of the requirement, and only two bids remained: DDBA and Ingeniería en Seguridad. The same paper reported on 20 November 2020 that facial recognition software was awarded through a public tender, in February 2020, to DDBA, the local representative of Spain's Herta, for US$ 638,913 plus US$ 238,178 for three years of maintenance, covering at least 3,000 mobile devices and at least 300 police workstations. Twenty-two social and academic organisations sent a letter to legislators warning about the biases of these systems; Patricia Díaz, of Datysoc, argued they carry significant biases and higher error rates for women, older people and people with darker skin.
Why it matters to you
This is the ministry's largest technology investment, and what is at stake is who gets to compete for it. When a technical requirement leaves only two bidders, the price ends up set by a market of two. And facial recognition is applied to people walking down the street: its margin of error has concrete consequences.
Where it stands
The network kept growing. On 1 April 2026 the Interior Ministry announced an investment of more than US$ 100 million, over 20,000 cameras — 21% growth — the installation of the fifth licence-plate reading gantry in the metropolitan area with a target of 28 by year's end and more than 50 in total, and thermal-camera drones operated from the Unified Command Centre. The centre's director, General Commissioner Víctor Torres, said the technologies had been analysed and developed alongside the ministry's innovation teams. As this file closes (August 2026) we found no published audits of facial recognition use, nor an official reply to the organisations' 2020 warning.
We could not isolate a defensible set of contracts
This spending does travel through public procurement, but we found no filter that separates this file's contracts from everything else those bodies buy. Rather than show a total that mixes the questioned spending with what nobody disputes, we show none. You can explore the body's contracts yourself from the explorer.
Camera and software tenders do appear in the state procurement portal, but the amounts announced in releases and press conferences bundle works, equipment and services from several tenders and do not map one-to-one onto individual procurement files.
Explore contracts in the explorer