Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves will meet next week with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in Costa Rica, as regional attention continues to grow around El Salvador’s security strategy and prison infrastructure. The visit will focus on Costa Rica’s new high-security prison project, which draws inspiration from El Salvador’s approach to combating organized crime.
During a recent press conference, Chaves confirmed the upcoming visit, stating, “We will have the honor in Costa Rica of welcoming the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, next week, who is coming to see the major progress of the Cacco project, our prison.” The Center for High Containment and Organized Crime (Cacco) is being built in La Reforma, Alajuela province, with an investment of $34 million and a capacity for 5,000 inmates.
Chaves explained that the facility is intended to prepare Costa Rica for tougher action against violent crime once legal reforms are enacted. “When we can change this country’s laws against crime and finally have a judicial system that works as it should, we will be ready to isolate hitmen and criminals from society,” he said.
Several governments in the region have shown interest in building large-scale prisons inspired by El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), located in Tecoluca, San Vicente Sur. The Cecot was constructed by the Salvadoran government to hold gang leaders and organized crime figures arrested under the state of exception.
Chaves visited the Cecot in mid-December as part of an official state visit to El Salvador, which also included the signing of the “Shield of the Americas” alliance, aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation on regional security. “Nayib is coming to continue advising us, inspect the progress [of Cacco], and show the people of Costa Rica that we can and must provide security to a population that demands it,” Chaves said.
This will mark the third meeting between the two presidents, following Bukele’s first official visit to Costa Rica in November 2024. President Chaves is set to conclude his term in May.