Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announced Wednesday the construction of a high-security prison to isolate gang leaders.
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Several Latin American countries are trying to reproduce the prison model of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who in his “war against gangs” has imprisoned 92,000 people since 2022.
Without mentioning the security policy of his Salvadoran counterpart, Mr. Mulino said he wanted to toughen the prison regime in order to prevent prisoners from continuing their criminal activities from their cells.
AFP
“We are going to build a high security prison and toughen penitentiary standards” by “totally isolating the gang leaders,” Mr. Mulino declared before the National Assembly.
The president of Panama announced these measures as a wave of violence shocked the country with the death of a 10-year-old girl in an attack by hitmen targeting her father, and the escape of nearly 200 prisoners – most of whom have already been recaptured – a month ago.
“I would rather be accused of overcrowding prisons than allow gang members to continue to extort, kill, steal and move drugs through every street in our country,” Mr. Mulino said.
Ecuador and Costa Rica have also embarked on the construction of high-security prisons inspired by El Salvador’s Terrorism Containment Center (Cecot), where prisoners are crammed by the dozen into cells under an excessively harsh regime.
