The mega-prison approach to fighting crime

In January, then-President-elect of Chile José Antonio Kast visited the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) in El Salvador, arriving by helicopter to tour the facility's pavilions. Prior to the tour, Kast stated that his home country needed to import effective ideas to combat crime, highlighting the Salvadoran mega-prison as a model.

The event underscores a growing transnational interest in high-capacity detention facilities as a strategy for addressing rising criminal activity, with Latin American political figures examining El Salvador's aggressive incarceration infrastructure for potential implementation elsewhere in the region.