The Government of Costa Rica announced on Wednesday, April 9 that it works in the preparation of a model for the creation of a new prison in the country, with the support of El Salvador on design issues, plans and construction processes.
The Costa Rican authorities reported on the ratification of agreements to access the designs, plans and processes of construction of Salvadoran criminal centers, which will result in a saving of approximately US $ 25 million for the country in the building of this work.
“Initially, the estimated cost of the new Costa Rican penitentiary center was around US $ 60 million, but thanks to this cooperation, it could be reduced to about US $ 35 million. In addition, the country already works on the identification of sources of financing its own to carry out the project,” said the Minister of Justice and Peace, Gerald Campos.
The minister met last week with his counterpart of justice and security of El Salvador, Gustavo Villatoro, as well as with the technical teams responsible for the penitentiary infrastructure. The Costa Rican delegation also visited several criminal centers, including the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) and the Zero Leisure prison.
In the CECOT, gang leaders are held and, for a few weeks, migrants – mostly Venezuelans – accused of belonging to the transnational criminal organization of Aragua, who were expelled from the United States.
The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, said Wednesday at the weekly press conference that the Administration will be prepared so that, when the Judiciary and the Legislative Assembly change the laws for more rigorous, the country has a modern and maximum security prison.
“Today we can build the jail, but it will remain empty because the laws are of pimpering. The laws have not wanted to change them since 1998,” said Chaves.
As part of the actions, the authorities of Costa Rica and El Salvador agreed to a reciprocal cooperation relationship between the personnel of both ministries, focused on issues such as discipline, security, social insertion, labor opportunities within the system and the application of preventive models, said the Costa Rican government.
Minister Campos informed that, with the aim of having a safer country, the maximum security quotas will be extended soon to 1,000 deprived of liberty.
Salvadoran authorities attribute the decrease in homicides during the Nayib Bukele government to their territorial control plan and the suspension of constitutional guarantees through the exception regime, in force since March 2022. However, this measure is controversial, it has become the main and only bet of the Government against gangs and has been indicated by violating rights.
For its part, in recent years, Costa Rica – País recognized for its pacifism and tranquility – has experienced a strong increase in homicides, most attributed to hitmen of drug traffickers. In 2024, Costa Rica registered 880 homicides, the second highest figure in its history, and reached a rate of 16.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).