Peru's Fujimori Visits Salvadoran Gang Prison

Peru's president spent a Thursday touring El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, which is about the closest thing to a model home a prison can be. Salvadoran security and defense ministers walked her delegation through the design and the isolation methods, and she came away praising Bukele's approach. Peru has its own history with terrorism, she said, and nobody who has lived through that needs a seminar on why a locked door matters. She campaigned on wanting a prison like this one, so this was less a visit than a shopping trip. Costa Rica's president came through more than a week earlier, which makes it a regional tour. Since March 2022, more than 90,000 people have been locked up under El Salvador's state of exception, and the country now has the highest incarceration rate per capita. Don't count your chickens yet, though. Her sit-down with Bukele is still on the calendar.