Costa Rica has transferred its first 123 inmates to a newly constructed maximum-security prison designed to strengthen the country’s fight against organised crime and rising insecurity.
The country’s Ministry of Justice announced the transfer on Tuesday, sharing images of inmates wearing orange uniforms with shaved heads and their hands positioned behind their necks.
The facility, known as the High Containment Center against Organized Crime, was built on the outskirts of the capital, San José, with assistance from the Salvadoran government.
The images bear similarities to scenes from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison where the government of President Nayib Bukele detains tens of thousands of gang members and suspected gang affiliates.
Costa Rica’s President Laura Fernandez has presented the new facility as a key part of her administration’s tougher approach to tackling crime amid growing security concerns.
The country, previously regarded as one of the most peaceful in the Western Hemisphere, has experienced a significant increase in violence associated with drug trafficking and organised criminal groups.
Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar described the prison as a major development in the country’s security efforts, saying, “Costa Rica is writing a new chapter in its penitentiary history,” Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar said in a statement.
“CACCO is a monument to national security, a forceful response to organized crime, and a guarantee that the state will exercise its authority without hesitation.”
Aguilar also said the facility would help ease overcrowding across the country’s prison system.
With a capacity of 5,100 inmates, the prison could accommodate the equivalent of about 20 per cent of Costa Rica’s current prison population.
The country recorded a record number of homicides in 2023, although the figures have since stabilised.
Authorities have linked most of the killings to clashes between criminal groups competing for control of drug trafficking routes and markets.
