Costa Rica opens mega-prison as Bukele model embraced across Latin America

Key points

• Costa Rica opened the CACCO mega-prison with capacity for 5,100 people, about 20 percent of its current prison population.
• President Laura Fernandez said the facility would make Costa Rica a global benchmark for prison security.
• Countries across Latin America, including Peru, Colombia and Brazil, are adopting or considering similar mega-prison models inspired by El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.

Costa Rica has opened a new mega-prison, the High-Containment Centre Against Organised Crime (CACCO), as the country faces near-record homicide levels and growing organised crime. President Laura Fernandez inaugurated the facility on Wednesday. It will have capacity for 5,100 people, equivalent to about 20 percent of Costa Rica's current prison population.

The opening comes as countries across Latin America embrace police crackdowns that have proven popular but often weaken key civil liberties. Costa Rica, long spared high levels of violent crime compared with its neighbours, recorded 905 homicides in 2023, 876 in 2024 and 873 in 2025. Analysts say this is partly due to increased fighting between criminal groups over lucrative drug routes.

What officials said

Fernandez said during the inauguration ceremony that the CACCO would force criminals to face a new model, describing it as a tough-on-crime approach. She added that Costa Rica would become a global benchmark for prison security.

Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar said the facility would help the government reassert control over the prison system and diminish infiltration by organised crime. The first transfers to the new mega-prison will take place at the end of October.

The CACCO will force criminals to face a new model – a tough-on-crime model. Costa Rica will become a global benchmark for prison security.

— Laura Fernandez

Regional embrace of mega-prisons

Candidates across Latin America have embraced mega-prisons, seeking to replicate the policies of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, who has won widespread popularity through mass arrests and the suspension of basic rights. Right-wing leaders in other countries have also sought to follow the model.

Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, inaugurated in July, has announced plans to tour El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), which can hold about 40,000 people, in anticipation of creating a similar facility. In Colombia, newly elected leader Abelardo de la Espriella campaigned partly on a pledge to build 10 mega-prisons and took office in August. Brazil is in the midst of its presidential election, and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who advanced to the final round, has a platform that includes building five mega-prisons based on the Salvadoran model.

El Salvador's state of exception

El Salvador first imposed a state of exception under Bukele in 2022, expanding police and military powers. The emergency declaration has been credited with a sharp drop in homicides, but rights groups say it has led to severe rights abuses and has been weaponised against critics of the government.

The state of exception has resulted in mass arrests and mass trials, with rulings delivered against hundreds of defendants at a time. Some defendants have been detained without charge. While the Bukele administration frequently touts its success in dismantling gangs, the government has continuously extended the state of exception since it was first imposed. Critics have warned that conditions inside mega-prisons are often poor, with imprisoned people facing overcrowding, due process violations and alleged torture in facilities like CECOT.