Caribbean & Central America - August 2026

Since taking office in May, Costa Rica’s new government led by President Laura Fernández, the protégée of her predecessor, conservative populist Rodrigo Chaves (2022-2026), has announced various security measures as well as progress regarding the construction of a new maximum-security prison, Centro de Alta Contención de la Criminalidad Organizada (Cacco). Inspired by the notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Cecot) in El Salvador constructed under Fernández’s ally, authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, the new jail forms the centrepiece of her hardline stance. The government’s new measures and its commitment to forging ahead with Cacco are in line with Fernández’s election-winning campaign pledge to tackle insecurity, with Costa Rica having faced soaring homicides in recent years, attributed to the presence of drug trafficking organisations [SSR-26-02]. It is the latest sign of the pivot from security policies pursued under Chaves’ predecessors, which had focused on social prevention and increasing the police presence.

In a 1 July update, Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar said that construction of Cacco was 64% complete. Located in Alajuela province, the new high-security prison, construction on which began under Chaves (now serving as Fernández’s minister of the presidency and finance minister), will house 5,100 inmates when complete. Aguilar also revealed that prisoners would be required to wear orange uniforms, reviving a practice that Costa Rica has not used in its prison system since the 1970s. He was cited by the media as saying that the uniforms, which would enable prisoners to be more easily identified, would be produced by inmates at the women’s facility Vilma Curling Rivera, also known as El Buen Pastor, which is in the capital San José, with materials donated by private companies, meaning these would be produced at no extra cost to the State.

The progress update on the Cacco, which followed an earlier announcement regarding plans to more generally toughen conditions in prisons, came two weeks after President Fernández unveiled a legislative package aimed at tackling insecurity. Announced on 15 May, these reforms include the so-called ‘Gerson Rosales law’ (named after a member of the national police force, Fuerza Pública [PF], killed in the line of duty on 13 May), which seeks to strengthen legal protection for the PF. These include the presumption that officers’ use of force is justified when performing official duties. Under a further reform, participation in criminal organisations would become a criminal offence punishable with a prison sentence of 1-6 years, rising to 6-20 years depending on the role played in the organisation and the crimes in question. Fernández is also proposing stiffer penalties for repeat offenders and an expansion of prisoners’ participation in paid productive activities, citing a monthly cost to the prison system of US$1,000 per prisoner.

• Tougher prison conditions

On 25 May President Fernández revealed plans to further toughen prison conditions with a legislative initiative which proposes making audio and video recordings of visits received by inmates in prisons. She also said that the authorities had identified 260 criminal structures comprising 4,300 gang members in the country, and that police chiefs would be subject to polygraph tests – a policy which led her on 22 June to announce the dismissal of seven top officials (whose identities were not revealed) after they failed the tests.

Insecurity remains the chief public concern

In a poll published on 6 May by the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos (Ciep) of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), 49.5% of respondents listed insecurity and crime as their main concern, up from 45% in the previous Ciep poll in September 2025, and the highest level in any Ciep poll on record.

Far behind in second place was corruption (10.5%), poor governance (6.2%), and drugs and narcotrafficking (5.3%). The same survey showed that 59.2% of respondents thought that the new government led by Fernández, who served as Chaves’ minister of the presidency (2024-2025, 2026) and planning (2022-2025), would be an improvement on that of her predecessor.