Argentina considers El Salvador-style mega-prisons to tackle crime
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Argentina is considering emulating El Salvador’s controversial crackdown on violent crime after a visit by President Javier Milei’s security minister to the country’s new mega prison.
Patricia Bullrich, a longtime law-and-order hardliner, toured the Terrorism Confinement Centre on Sunday. She praised the iron-fist approach taken by Nayib Bukele, president of the Central American nation.
“From a country overtaken by violence, drug-trafficking and the maras [gangs] who murdered 150,000 El Salvadorans to one of the safest in the world, where families have recovered their lives and live in peace. This is the path. Tough against the criminals. Freedom for Argentines,” she posted on X.
Built in 2023 in a remote area 50 miles southeast of the capital San Salvador, the jail can hold 40,000 prisoners, reputedly making it the largest prison in the world. It’s also the centrepiece of Mr Bukele’s draconian campaign to tackle the country’s street gangs.
Before Mr Bukele came to power El Salvador was one of the world’s most homicidal countries, with the murder rate hitting 107 per 100,000 people in 2015 – more than 100 times higher than in the UK.
But in March 2022 he placed the entire nation in an official state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights and due process. Since then, nearly 80,000 alleged gang members, often identifiable by their shaven heads and tattoos, have been locked up, making areas that were previously police no-go zones safe.
‘Human rights violations’
But the crackdown has been tarnished by allegations of thousands of wrongful arrests as well as torture and deaths in custody. Human Rights Watch has accused Mr Bukele of launching an “assault on democratic institutions” and “widespread human rights violations”.
Uploading a video of her visit on Sunday to X, Ms Bullrich spoke to the camera as dozens of inmates dressed in white uniforms sat crammed into a cell behind her.
“El Salvador was the most violent country. It has since become a country where families can walk and live in peace and tranquillity,” she said.
Ms Bullrich had previously hailed Mr Bukele’s approach as a model for Argentina.
The relationship between Mr Milei and Mr Bukele has blossomed.
The Argentine president was one of a handful of world leaders who attended the inauguration, held in private, of Mr Bukele’s second term earlier in June. The pair were pictured beaming at a one-on-one meeting afterwards
There are, however, doubts about whether the El Salvadoran model could work in Argentina. Ariel Larroude, a former head of crime policy in the South American nation’s security ministry, says the two countries are not comparable.
El Salvador had been dominated by the bloodthirsty mara gangs, whereas most crime in Argentina is opportunistic and petty, such as muggings and robbery, he told CNN.
“We haven’t reached the level of conflict that El Salvador has now had for a long time,” he added, warning that Argentina’s annual homicide rate over the past two decades had never surpassed nine per 100,000 residents, less than a 10th of El Salvador’s.
Mr Milei is not the only Latin American admirer of Mr Bukele. Last week, Xiomara Castro, the leftist leader of Honduras, unveiled plans to build a new prison to hold 20,000 gang members there.
Ms Bullrich is due to remain in El Salvador until Wednesday and is expected to meet with Mr Bukele.
