Q COSTARICA — El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele visited Costa Rica during the final days of its presidential campaign, sparking renewed political and legal tensions.
Bukele’s main public engagement was a midday ceremony on Wednesday to mark the start of construction for the Center for High Containment of Organized Crime (CACCO), a new maximum-security prison backed by the Costa Rican government.
The prison is modeled on a smaller scale after El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), established under Bukele’s administration to detain members of criminal organizations.
El Salvador donated the prison’s blueprints to Costa Rica, a move that President Rodrigo Chaves’ government says saved roughly US$25 million, according to El Observador.
CECOT, which houses gang members and terrorism suspects, has become a symbol of El Salvador’s tough stance on organized crime. The facility also received migrants deported by the Trump administration who were suspected gang affiliates.
Bukele’s visit, just three weeks before Costa Rica’s Feb. 1 presidential election, intensified friction between Chaves’ administration and opposition parties. Public security has been a central issue in the campaign.
To supporters, Bukele represents a firm hand that can restore order. Critics warn his growing hold on power signals a weakening of democratic institutions in El Salvador.
The visit also triggered legal challenges before Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the independent body overseeing elections.
Semanario Universidad reported that the TSE received complaints demanding Bukele’s visit be blocked over fears of election interference, as well as counterclaims alleging foreign funding and political exploitation of the trip.
The tribunal rejected these motions, allowing the visit to proceed but cautioning that foreign delegations must avoid meddling in domestic politics, according to La Nación.
Despite this ruling, the visit took on political weight, with every word, gesture, and photo scrutinized as potential election influence.
Opposition presidential candidate Claudia Dobles criticized the visit, saying Bukele’s presence was unnecessary. “The first thing is that President Bukele comes for nothing,” she said, dismissing it as “an inspection of a prison that does not exist.”
Dobles called the project “smoke and mirrors,” explaining that what was presented as a new mega-prison is actually just an expansion of La Reforma, Costa Rica’s main prison complex. “That expansion is needed,” she added to CRHoy.
Costa Rica is grappling with a surge in violence linked to organized crime and drug trafficking conflicts, pushing homicide rates to historic highs.
The country recorded 873 homicides in 2025, nearly matching the 876 in 2024 and following a record 906 killings in 2023, according to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), Costa Rica’s main criminal investigative body.
Official reports indicate many killings stem from revenge attacks carried out mainly with firearms, reflecting the growing reach and territorial disputes of criminal networks.