El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is scheduled to visit Costa Rica next week at the invitation of President Rodrigo Chaves, the Presidential House announced.

According to the authorities, Bukele will arrive on Wednesday, Jan. 14, to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the High Containment Center Against Organized Crime, known by its Spanish acronym CACCO. The facility is a large maximum-security prison under construction in Alajuela Province.

Bukele, who was recently reelected, will also meet with Costa Rican officials to discuss regional security, bilateral trade and ongoing cooperation between the two countries.

The visit will be Bukele’s second official trip to Costa Rica. He last visited in November 2024, when he met with Chaves and toured the country’s main prison. During that visit, Chaves awarded Bukele the Juan Rafael Mora Porras Distinction in recognition of El Salvador’s crime-reduction efforts.

 

The CACCO mega-prison project is expected to cost about $35 million. Of that total, $15 million was approved by Costa Rica’s Congress in August 2025 to finance the initial phase. The remaining funds are expected to be included in the 2026 national budget.

The prison will be built near the existing Jorge Arturo Montero Castro Prison, commonly known as La Reforma, in the canton of San Rafael in Alajuela Province. Plans call for approximately 31,000 square meters of construction on a site covering more than 90,000 square meters.

Once completed, the facility is expected to house more than 5,000 inmates across five buildings. Authorities say it will hold members of organized crime groups, violent offenders, prisoners eligible for extradition, inmates considered a security risk and individuals requiring special protection.

The CACCO prison is scheduled to open in January 2027.

In December 2025, Chaves visited Bukele in El Salvador for bilateral meetings focused on regional security.

During that trip, Chaves also toured the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in San Vicente province. The facility is the largest prison in Latin America, with a capacity for 40,000 inmates.