The Government of Costa Rica has put into operation the High Containment and Organized Crime Center (CACCO), a maximum-security prison based on the model of the famous Salvadoran prison, with the admission of the first 123 inmates and reproducing the same deployment that El Salvador shows in its transfers.
The Minister of Justice, Gabriel Aguilar, has stated that this Monday has been a "historic day for all the people of Costa Rica" and has detailed that the first three to enter are the alleged responsible for the "cowardly homicide" of Police officer Gerson Rosales, murdered in mid-May.
The announcement of the operation has been accompanied by images of the inmates wearing the characteristic orange prisoner jumpsuit, shaved to the skin and surrounded by a strong security device, scenes very similar to those disseminated from the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in El Salvador.
"For years we allowed criminal structures to pretend to turn our prisons into operation centers to continue committing crimes. With the CACCO we are sending a strong message: the tolerance is over (...) This work is a firm response to protect our families," Aguilar has emphasized.
The CACCO can accommodate up to 5,100 inmates, divided into five modules. Each of them has 17 cells of about 90 square meters, with the capacity to hold up to 60 people per cell.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the occupancy of the center will be done gradually with the aim of reducing the current overcrowding of 59% in the rest of the prisons to around 15%.
On October 14, the president of Costa Rica, Laura Fernández, inaugurated the first module of the CACCO, located in Alajuela, in the center of the country. The project has involved an investment of 35 million dollars (31 million euros) and replicates the scheme promoted by President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, which has already been adopted by other governments in the region or incorporated as a promise by several candidates.