Costa Rica Opens 5,100-Inmate Prison Modeled on El Salvador's CECOT

Costa Rica has opened the 5,100-person High-Containment Center Against Organized Crime, a maximum-security prison modeled on El Salvador’s CECOT, as part of its response to persistently high homicide levels linked largely to disputes over drug trafficking. President Laura Fernández has cast the facility as central to a tougher strategy against organized crime, while officials say its impact will depend partly on securing more convictions; the first inmate transfers are expected at the end of October. El Salvador’s crackdown is credited with reducing gang violence, but human rights groups warn of arbitrary detentions, due-process violations and weakened democratic safeguards, concerns that resonate amid tensions between Fernández’s government and Costa Rica’s judicial authorities.