SAN JOSÉ — Costa Rica has finished building a maximum-security mega-prison modeled on El Salvador’s CECOT and will inaugurate it on October 14, President Laura Fernández announced, a flagship of her government’s tougher approach to organized crime.
The Center for High Containment against Organized Crime (CACCO) will hold 5,100 inmates in five modules of 1,020 each, according to local reporting. It sits in San Rafael de Alajuela, next to the existing La Reforma prison, about 25 kilometers from San José.
“Por eso lo prometimos y hoy podemos decir con orgullo que el centro está listo,” Fernández said about the opening — “That is why we promised it, and today we can say with pride that the center is ready.”
The project began under Fernández’s predecessor, Rodrigo Chaves, who is now Minister of the Presidency and Finance. Bukele attended the groundbreaking on January 14, 2026. “When insecurity advances, work falls, education complicates, the economy slows,” he said, warning that unchecked crime becomes “a parallel government,” per Bloomberg Línea.
Costa Rican officials put the cost at about $35 million, financed from the national budget without external debt. BBC reported that Salvadoran technical cooperation cut the budget from an initial $60 million estimate.
The prison targets organized crime leaders, violent offenders, extradition candidates and inmates needing special protection. Reporting also indicates inmates will wear uniforms without pockets, elastic bands or cords, get one hour of outdoor time a day, and can be isolated for up to 48 hours after disturbances.
CACCO is far smaller than its model. CECOT can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Costa Rica’s justice minister at the time, Gerald Campos, said the facility will respect human rights and that inmates will have access to sunlight and recreation, unlike El Salvador’s.
Costa Rica’s prisons held about 18,061 inmates in 2025, up from 14,907 in 2022, and operated at 34.4% over capacity. The country recorded 873 homicides in 2025, a rate of 16.7 per 100,000, the third-highest total in its history.
Killings are down so far this year, with 623 from January to September versus 658 a year earlier, but August and September rose.
Fernández’s government has already tightened conditions in existing prisons, including roadside work details, fewer conjugal visits, limits on food and clothing from families, removal of electrical outlets and cables from cells, and closing prison shops.
It remains unclear which inmates will be transferred first, how many guards will staff the facility, what it will cost to run each year, and how independent monitors will inspect conditions.
CECOT has been criticized by human rights groups for alleged detainee rights violations.
