How Bukele's mega-prisons became a model for the radical right

How Bukele's mega-prisons became a model for the radical right
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In the last electoral campaigns in Latin America, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, with his strong-arm policy against crime (including his controversial mega-prisons) became a recurring reference in the political debate.
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In Colombia, the right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won the presidential elections, according to data from the preliminary count. He openly expressed his admiration for Bukele.
During the campaign, De la Espriella promised to build seven mega-prisons inspired by the Salvadoran model.
In neighboring Peru, presidential candidate and virtual winner Keiko Fujimori also included the same idea at the center of her security proposal.
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The right-wing leader assured that, if she comes to power, she will promote the construction of four penitentiaries and a mega-prison for high-ranking defendants. dangerousness, "like Cecot, in El Salvador". It is a reference to the Central American country's Terrorism Confinement Center, which has received numerous reports of human rights abuses.
The attraction of Bukele's megaprisons is not limited to Latin America. His model has also begun to reverberate among the European radical right.
Last week, the president of the far-right French party National Regroupment, Jordan Bardella, made reference to the Salvadoran penitentiary system when addressing the problem of overcrowding in French penitentiaries.
"In a country of 6 million inhabitants, Bukele built 40,000 prison spaces in eight months," said Bardella, in an interview with the French network BFMTV.
This approach seems attractive to some political leaders. But its critics warn that it is often presented without mentioning the allegations of human rights violations, documented within the scope of these policies.
"We need to be careful when talking about the 'Bukele model' because, in fact, it is not a model", researcher Sonja Wolf, from the Faculty of Government and Economics at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, told BBC News Mundo (the BBC's Spanish-language service). "But it suits Bukele that he receive this name and spread it to other countries."
Wolf is the author of the book Mano Dura ("Strong Hand", in free translation), which examines the policy of controlling gangs in El Salvador.
She states that part of the international attraction awakened by this approach occurs because the political context of its development in the Central American country is not always known.
"Many do not understand the political regime that Bukele has been consolidating", he explains it.
"It is what can be described as electoral autocracy, where, to remain in power, it is necessary to demonstrate that it has the support of 'the people'."
In this sense, the exceptional regime, which has been allowing mass arrests, fulfills a double function: combating crime and reinforcing its political legitimacy.
Alleged criminals participate in a virtual hearing during a collective trial against members of the 'Mara Salvatrucha' (MS-13) gang
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"In addition to the elections, it is essential for Bukele to maintain high levels of popularity", continues the researcher.
"The exceptional regime, despite the costs incurred for the people detained and for democracy in El Salvador, enjoys popular support and serves to sustain his political project."
Wolf highlights that the international projection of these policies also plays a fundamental role.
"The promotion of the exceptional regime abroad and visits by political leaders to places like Cecot contribute to reinforcing its image and legitimize his stay in power", according to her.
In February 2024, when he was re-elected president with more than 80% of the votes, Bukele highlighted the results obtained by his government in terms of security. He boasted of having achieved his objectives "with a Salvadoran recipe", rebutting his critics.
"We went from being the most insecure country in the world to being the safest on the entire American continent. And what did they say? That it is violating human rights", he declared to his followers, in reference to international denunciations of his firm-handed policy.
"Whose human rights? Not those of honorable people", Bukele continued.
"Maybe we have prioritized people's rights honorable rights over those of criminals, that's all we did and that's what you call violating human rights."
In February 2024, Nayib Bukele was re-elected president of El Salvador with more than 80% of the votes. He highlighted the results obtained by his government in terms of security.
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The reason for the attraction to the radical right
The attraction of Bukele's "firm pulse" policy to sectors of the radical right in Latin America and other parts of the world is due to several factors.
On the one hand, it offers a quick and visible response to one of voters' main concerns: insecurity, in the case of Latin America, combined with irregular immigration, in the United States and in Europe.
The images of thousands of prisoners in megaprisons, in addition to the drastic reduction in homicides in El Salvador, project the idea that the strategy was effective. In fact, the country went from being one of the most violent in the world to being among the safest on the continent, reinforcing this perception.
But Salvadoran politics brought high costs.
From Colombia to France, Nayib Bukele's security model gained space in the political debate. But human rights organizations warn about the risks of replicating the Salvadoran president's policies
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According to the Salvadoran organization Cristosal, the exceptional regime in force since March 2022 has normalized the mass detention of people with limited judicial control, leaving thousands of detainees without sufficient evidence against them.
On the other hand, Human Rights Watch has documented cases of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions and disappearances forced.
The organization also denounced the weakening of democratic institutions and the lack of judicial guarantees in Nayib Bukele's government.
United Nations experts warned that prolonged detention, without access to legal assistance or judicial review, could constitute a serious violation of international law.
In a joint report with Cristosal on the Salvadoran penitentiary system, Human Rights Watch concluded that "the cases of torture and ill-treatment at Cecot were not incidents isolated, but rather systematic violations, repeated throughout the detention."
But the attraction of the so-called "Bukele model" lies not only in its security strategy, but also in its political dimensions, according to analysts.
Many leaders observe the Salvadoran president's high levels of popularity as a sign that this type of "steadfast" politics and rhetoric can generate electoral support.
"When studies are carried out on political culture in Latin America, people usually initially express support for democracy", he explains Wolf. "But, when more specific questions arise, what is observed is that many prefer leaders who solve their problems."
"People, in practice, are not as democratic as we can imagine."
For politicians, this model based on strong leadership and few institutional counterweights ends up being especially attractive.
Relatives of prisoners in El Salvador demand 'proof of life' from Nayib Bukele's government and human rights organizations denounce that hundreds of innocent people remain imprisoned, even with orders to release
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In other countries
But several analysts warn that this attraction can be misleading.
The model can hardly be exported and depends, to a large extent, on specific conditions in El Salvador, as well as political decisions that would not always be viable or legal in other countries.
Ecuador is one of the countries that have tried to apply this technique.
Since 2023, when current president Daniel Noboa took office, the country has tried to reproduce elements of the model Salvadoran, declaring an "internal armed conflict".
The measure was accompanied by the militarization of security, mass arrests and the announcement of new maximum security prisons.
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, in a speech during the laying of the cornerstone of a maximum security prison for 800 inmates in Santa Elena, on the country's coast, on June 21, 2024
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But the measures did not produced the expected results. Levels of violence remained high in the country.
The homicide rate in Ecuador went from around 8 per 100 thousand inhabitants, in 2020, to around 45 in 2023. And, in 2025, it reached 51 per 100 thousand people, in the most violent year in the country's recent history, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Inec), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and estimates from the specialized portal InSight Crime.
The government of former president Xiomara Castro (2022-2026), in Honduras, also adopted "firm pulse" measures, inspired by El Salvador. They included states of exception and militarization of security.
But there was no sustained reduction in violence, as occurred in the neighboring country.
Honduras continues to be one of the most violent countries in the region, with a homicide rate of around 23 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025, according to the annual security balance of the InSight Crime portal.
These numbers have led several experts to question the effectiveness of this approach.
"There is a reason why the security model of Bukele has not produced results in countries that have tried to partially replicate him, such as Honduras and Ecuador," Human Rights Watch's director for the Americas, Juanita Goebertus, told the BBC.
"The so-called 'Bukele model' is not just based on mass arrests," she continues.
"This is not a sustainable strategy. of public security. Homicides have decreased in El Salvador, but at the expense of weakening the institutions necessary to guarantee lasting security."
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