Tecoluka, El Salvador (AP), Costa Rica Security Minister has toured the prison with maximum security of El Salvador on Friday as part of his review of El Salvador to reduce the violence caused by powerful street gangs during a three-year offensive.
Costa Minister and Peace Minister Rica Gerald Campos Valverde said he was visiting President Rodrigo Chavez’s orders to “see the good practices of Salvadoran’s people in order to fight crime and to return the rights of all citizens.”
In November, Costa Rica presented her highest diplomatic honor to El Salvador President Naib Bouke for his success in lowering the levels of violence during his three-year campaign against powerful street gangs.
El Salvador lived in a state of emergency, which stops fundamental rights as access to a lawyer. About 84,000 people have been arrested, charged with gangs.
The killings have fallen in El Salvador and improved security nourishes the bouquet’s popularity.
“Rescue El Salvador from these wicked nails also helps peace in our region,” Chavez said when he introduced to a bouquet last year. “The fight against organized crime in every part of Central America is welcome. Access and influence and a bad example for gangs must be reduced.”
Campos came out impressed with the gang prison, which Boukele was built at the beginning of the emergency, where Campos said he had seen the fundamental rights be respected.
The director of the prison Belarmino Garcia showed Campos one of the cells holding about 70 prisoners. The prison director instructs prisoners to remove their shirts to show their tattoo torso and ask some to identify their belonging to a gang to show that members of rival bands share the same cell.
After his tour, Campos said Costa Rica would not continue to allow criminals to be arrested by police just to see them quickly released from the judiciary.
“We’ll take all the good practices” back to Costa Rica, “to give Costa the Ricans a place of peace and tranquility,” he said.
Salvador Gustavo Security Minister Villato said earlier on Friday that El Salvador was pleased to share his experience with Costa Rica, a country that was recently a reference to peace, but now struggling with bloodshed, like Salvador once.
“This is not a matter of spear and placement, but rather to learn what we have done and apply in each country, what exactly can be done to save thousands of Costa Rican, thousands of salvadoran and to close hundreds,” Villaro said.
The new band in prison of El Salvador, where prisoners are kept in large cells and are never allowed outside, has earned more attention in recent weeks after the US government has sent nearly 300 migrants, including more than 200 Venezuelans, he accused of having the band’s relationships there.
Costa Rica continues to fight historically high murder numbers.
In 2023, Costa Rica set a record for killings with 907, to some extent in 2024 to 880. So far this year, the country has been at the same rate of killings as last year, according to government data.
Unlike Bukele, Chaves does not have a majority in Congress and has not reworked Costa Rica’s courts to remove the opposition.
Costa Rica – has long been applauded for a stable ecotourism industry, environmental protection and relative peace – in recent years it has been covered by violence, largely attributed to drug trafficking. Costa Rica has become a major cocaine export station to Europe and the United States.
___
Associated Press writer Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica contributed to this report.