Peru plans to transfer prisoners to El Salvador

After sending alleged members of criminal organizations from the United States to El Salvador's megaprisons in March, proudly touted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele , Peru recently mentioned its ambition to replicate the same scheme.

On Thursday, June 12, during a presentation before Congress, the President of the Peruvian Council of Ministers, Eduardo Arana, announced that the government was studying “a bilateral cooperation mechanism [with San Salvador] to transfer foreign prisoners [on Peruvian soil] to their country of origin,” but also to the notorious Terrorism Containment Center (Cecot) in El Salvador, reports RPP .

Quoted by the Peruvian media, he said:

“Transnational organized crime requires firm and coordinated responses. That is why the government is working on various strategies to send these particularly dangerous detainees back to their countries of origin.”

The proposal had already been raised a week earlier by Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer, following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Eduardo Salhuana. The minister, according to the daily El Pueblo , also told the press that the measure had been "picked up" by Salvadoran Ambassador to Peru Pablo Caballero, in order to suggest it to Bukele's government.

According to Eduardo Arana, the proposal's main objectives would be to "decongest" the Peruvian prison system, "disarticulate criminal structures" and "reaffirm the principle of state authority," Infobae reports .

In April, based on data from the National Penitentiary Institute, El Comercio reported that 94,000 prisoners are distributed across the 68 prisons in the Andean country, while their total capacity is only 41,000.

However, the media outlet cautions that there are currently no details on the potential contours of the measure and no one knows how the transfer mechanism would be organized between the Peruvian and Salvadoran governments. Quoted by Infobae, the director of the Salvadoran media outlet Radio YSKL's Nery Mabel Reyes said that the Salvadoran authorities "have not yet made a decision on this proposal."

Since the establishment of the state of emergency by Nayib Bukele in March 2022, several non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International , have recently denounced serial “arbitrary arrests” in the country, as well as inhumane detention conditions.