During the second day of his official visit to El Salvador, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves toured the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) to gain firsthand insight into the operations of the country’s maximum-security prison, a flagship element of President Nayib Bukele’s security strategy.
President Chaves was received by El Salvador’s Minister of Defense, René Francis Merino Monroy, and Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro, who guided him through the facility and explained its operational model. The visit comes as Costa Rica moves forward with plans to build a new prison with capacity for 5,100 inmates, expected to be completed by June 2026 and inspired by El Salvador’s penitentiary system.
The growing alignment follows President Bukele’s official visit to Costa Rica in November 2024, when he toured La Reforma prison and offered technical feedback on prison management and security policies. This exchange has laid the groundwork for deeper cooperation between both countries.
As part of this agenda, Presidents Bukele and Chaves formally launched the “Shield of the Americas” initiative in Santa Ana, El Salvador. The agreement enables the sharing of strategic information, coordination of joint security operations, dismantling of transnational criminal networks, and expanded cooperation in trade, investment, logistics, and innovation, with the door open for other nations to join the framework.