Costa Rica, considered for decades a peaceful enclave in turbulent Central America, has now made fighting drug trafficking one of its main goals. And it is turning to one of its Central American neighbours for inspiration in its hardline crackdown.
On Wednesday, President Laura Fernandez inaugurated a mega-prison that emulates the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) that has become a symbol of Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele’s security strategy.
Bukele has managed to reduce murders to a historic low in El Salvador but faces accusations of abuses during the state of emergency that began in 2022 and has imprisoned more than 91,000 people.
Costa Rica is not the first to turn its attention to the man who has proclaimed himself the “coolest dictator in the world”. Ecuador has done it. So have the new presidents of Peru and Colombia. From Honduras to the Southern Cone, these countries are joining the hardline security strategy also endorsed by US President Donald Trump.