Peru: Fujimori announces in El Salvador she will build prisons inspired by Bukele's model, calling it 'a beacon of hope for Latin America'
San Salvador — Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori announced Thursday in El Salvador that she will build new prisons inspired by the iron-fist model of President Nayib Bukele and that she intends to adopt some of his strict isolation and inmate-control measures.
The announcement came after she toured the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), the mega-prison built in Tecoluca, east of San Salvador, which has become a symbol of the mass-incarceration policy with which Bukele has fought gangs. Fujimori traveled accompanied by four ministers, including the heads of Interior and Justice.
“Peru and El Salvador are different countries, but insecurity and facing international criminal organizations lead us to take what we can replicate,” Fujimori said during a joint press conference with Bukele at the Presidential House in San Salvador. “The construction of prisons, which were also built in seven months, with absolute security measures. That is something we will of course take back to Peru,” she added.
The president announced that her government will begin building two new prisons in Peru, one of them for highly dangerous offenders, although she did not specify when construction will start, and expressed interest in adopting El Salvador's Zero Idleness prison program. Both leaders also signed a joint declaration establishing a road map for bilateral cooperation on security, education, health and institutional strengthening.
Fujimori said Bukele has given Salvadorans back “peace, security and the freedom to walk the streets without fear,” and described El Salvador as “a beacon of hope for Latin America.” She also said she was impressed by Cecot's isolation regime — “zero visits, zero communication” — and defended those measures on general security grounds, although El Salvador's policy has drawn serious complaints of arbitrary detentions, torture and deaths in custody, documented by international human rights organizations, according to El País.
Photo: El País
Source: El País