President Laura Fernandez on Wednesday opened the High-Containment Centre Against Organised Crime, a mega-prison with capacity for 5,100 people, equivalent to about 20 percent of Costa Rica’s current prison population, with the first transfers due at the end of October. The government presents the facility as a tool to reassert control over a prison system infiltrated by organised crime, in a country that recorded 905 homicides in 2023 and 873 in 2025 after decades of comparatively low violence. Peru’s president has announced plans for a similar facility and Colombia’s new president campaigned on building ten mega-prisons, even as rights groups warn the Salvadoran original has produced mass detention without charge and alleged abuse.
Costa Rica opens mega-prison in Bukele style crime crackdown
Costa Rica's President Laura Fernandez opened a 5,100 capacity mega-prison on Wednesday, the latest adoption in Latin America of the tough on crime model associated with El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.
Why it matters: Costa Rica was long the region's exception on violent crime, and its turn to a mega-prison, with Peru and Colombia pursuing similar facilities, shows the Bukele model becoming the default regional answer to organised crime.
Data as of Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Toronto time. Al Jazeera report opened and read in full; a Spanish language wire item on the same inauguration appeared in the evening feed scan. Developing item, 2 to 3 sentences by design.
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- Costa Rica opens mega-prison as Bukele model embraced across Latin America · Al Jazeera · 2026-10-15