Costa Rica Gang Crackdown—El Salvador’s Way?

Costa Rica gang crackdown

COSTA RICA GANG CRACKDOWN. The US is not the only nation that struggles to keep criminals behind bars in the Western Hemisphere. Now Costa Rica, known till recently as a peaceful nation, also has historically high homicide stats. In 2023, it set a new record with 907 homicides. And the next year that number went down only 3% to 880. Yet the justice system keeps freeing those arrested back into the streets.

Its shift from an ecotourism attraction to a cocaine way station has Costa Rica looking for answers. And only 200 miles northwest, El Salvador has found stunning and successful solutions. So Costa Rica sees El Salvador as one model for cracking down on and imprisoning gang members. It shows “what precisely can be done to rescue thousands of Costa Ricans…and imprisoning hundreds.”

In that way El Salvador Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro described his country’s anti-gang strategy. Last November Costa Rica awarded its highest diplomatic honor on El Salvador President Nayib Bukele for drastically reducing gang violence in only three years. CR President Rodrigo Chaves welcomed the “fight against organized crime in any part of Central America.” He added, “El Salvador’s rescue from those nefarious claws is also helping the peace in our region.”

From crime-fighting to peacemaking

Recently Chaves sent his Justice and Peace Minister to tour El Salvador’s maximum-security prison. Its harsh discipline and restrictions on inmates serve as a stark warming to wannabe gang members. And it works so well the Trump administration pays El Salvador to jail deported gang members there.

Yet human rights activists object to its inhumane treatment of prisoners. Pictures of them bowed down and packed into confined spaces have provoked protests and lawsuits. But also sighs of relief from the people they once terrorized. For 91% of Salvadoreans approve of President Nayib Bukele’s performance during his 3-year crackdown. Most likely that makes him the most popular politician in the world.

How much longer must the crackdown and severe treatment of criminals last? Let’s pray citizens will get so accustomed to peace in their streets, that temptations to violence will fade. Then El Salvador will give nations not only an example of crime-fighting but of peacemaking.

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Photo: President Donald Trump hosts a bilateral meeting with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, Monday, April 14, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)