El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele stated that the only way to resolve insecurity is through the firm use of State power. His remarks were delivered in Costa Rica during the ceremony marking the laying of the first stone of the CACCO, a high-security confinement center designed to replicate El Salvador’s CECOT model.
In his message, Bukele asserted that every State is, by nature, stronger than any criminal group operating within its territory. “There is no State that cannot defeat criminals,” he said, emphasizing that the ability to impose order depends on institutional will.
The president went further, stating that when a State fails to overcome crime, it is not due to lack of capacity, but rather internal complicity. “If a State does not defeat criminality, it is because the State is complicit, or because parts of the State are complicit,” he affirmed.
Bukele explained that once the State breaks any ties of complicity with criminal structures and acts decisively, the outcome is clear. “When the State frees itself from that complicity and moves with force against criminals, it defeats them,” he concluded.
His words were received as an open defense of the security model implemented in El Salvador, now being taken as a reference by Costa Rica in its plan to build a high-security confinement center inspired by the CECOT.
