On Tuesday, El Salvador's re-elected president Nayib Armando Bukele-Ortez, attended President Rodrigo Chaves-Robles' work session with his government team at the Jorge Arturo Montero Castro prison, formerly known as La Reforma jail, in Alajuela Province.

Bukele has made international headlines for his "Territorial Control Plan" implemented in July 2019. The anti-gang effort lowered the country's murder rate from 38/100,000 inhabitants in 2019 to 2.4/100,000 in 2023.

El Salvador is the second safest country in the Americas, behind Canada, Bukele said.

According to Bukele, in his country, "there are totally sterile prisons so, there is no chance for convicts (to organize a plan) to kill anyone who leaves there."

The Salvadoran president stressed that the prisons in Costa Rica "are luxury" compared to the prisons they had before in El Salvador.

He advised Costa Rica to tighten its prison system, calling it too indulgent.

"We believe that the prison system should be made less permissive," Bukele noted. "We must think more about the rights of those who are outside (of prisons) and the right of a country to have security."

“Costa Rica is a jewel that you must protect," Bukele advised. "You are currently seeing symptoms similar to those that El Salvador faced in the 1990s, and there’s still time to act."

Bukele said that his own country's faced with rising crime before his first government period. “We saw how this disease evolved and grew until it became uncontrollable, but by God’s miracle, we managed to contain it. Believe me, you don’t want it to reach that point.”

Another issue that caught Bukele's attention is the budget that the country spends on the maintenance of prisons, which is equivalent to $1,200 monthly for each prisoner. What he considered "excessive."

“We built the largest prison in Latin America for 40,000 inmates at a minimal cost because we designed it ourselves,” he stated.

Regarding the rights of prisoners, Bukele stated that controls must be increased on issues such as visits that prisoners receive, and access to benefits such as television. "Prisons must prevent prisoners from using them as their headquarters for crime," he added.

Additionally, Bukele announced the arrival of a flight from El Salvador with a donation of 15 tons of food and 6 tons of emergency equipment.

On the same flight, a team of 100 people arrived in the country, including rescuers, first aid personnel and emergency care experts.

The Salvadoran team put themselves at the orders of the National Emergency Committee to collaborate with aid and rescue operations during the flood emergencies.

That is the first of three flights with donations that will arrive in the country in the next few days, authorities said.

The Red Level Alert along the Pacific Coast was issued by the National Emergency Commission due to the indirect effect of tropical wave #46 of the green season.

On Monday, Chaves bestowed Bukele with the Juan Rafael Mora Porras Distinction in recognition of his efforts to reduce crime in his country.