Court warns that Bukele cannot intervene in the campaign during visit to Costa Rica

San José.- The Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica (TSE) rejected this Monday an appeal filed by a citizen who intended to prevent the visit that the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, will make this week, in the midst of the Costa Rican electoral campaign, but warned that the president cannot intervene in internal affairs. The TSE reported that it declared the electoral protection appeal “unfounded” because the appellant did not prove how the visit of the foreign leader, scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday, affects, specifically and personally, their fundamental political-electoral rights. However, the highest electoral body recalled that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations indicates that foreign delegations are obliged not to interfere in the internal affairs of the State in which they are located. “The taking of a position by a foreign leader – in favor or against any of the political options in contention – would constitute a violation of Public International Law,” explained the TSE in the resolution. Bukele will arrive in Costa Rica on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday he will visit the land where the Costa Rican government will build the Centro de Alta Contención de Crimen Organizado (CACCO) prison, a work inspired by the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Salvadoran mega-prison for gang members and a symbol of the “war” of Bukele’s government against these gangs.

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Bukele’s visit was announced last week by the President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, and has generated criticism from opposition parties who have interpreted it as a political act to benefit the official presidential candidate, Laura Fernández, who has proclaimed herself as the “heir” of the Costa Rican president. The future Costa Rican prison, which will cost 35 million dollars, will have five modules with a total capacity of 5,100 inmates, and according to the Government, it will serve to incarcerate the most violent prisoners there. The project is being developed at a time when Costa Rica is facing record-high homicide figures, with around 900 each year, of which 70% is attributed by the authorities to drug trafficking. Last December, Chaves visited El Salvador, where he met with Bukele and toured the CECOT. On his part, Bukele visited Costa Rica on November 12, 2024, and toured the main prison in that country, known as La Reforma, and warned of “symptoms” of criminality similar to those faced by El Salvador with gangs. On September 24th, during an official inauguration of scanners in ports, the Presidential House of Costa Rica released a video in which Bukele launched a message in favor of the “continuity” of projects of the Chaves Government, which was used by the official candidate, Laura Fernández, for her campaign.

“If the next Administration continues the projects of this Government, I have no doubt that the best days of Costa Rica are yet to come, a safer and more prosperous Costa Rica,” Bukele said in the video last September.