The Mexican and US governments have begun talks on a project to build a super-maximum security prison exclusively for organized crime leaders.
Keeping the capos isolated from the outside world would be one of the strategic objectives.
Sources close to the elaboration of this plan told MILENIO that the initiative of a mega prison “only for capos” has gained strength and followers in Washington as a way to collaborate with Mexican authorities to eradicate criminal organizations, especially the six catalogued as terrorists by the White House.
This construction — which would be unique in Mexico — would be advised by US agents specialized in building the toughest penitentiary systems on the continent, and its main objective would be to cut off communication between imprisoned criminal leaders and cells that operate freely on both sides of the border.
“In Washington there is no confidence in Mexico’s Judicial Power, neither in the security of its prisons”, assured a source who has participated in the first conversations about this measure, which if it’s carried out could help to reestablish the confidence between the White House and the National Palace.
It is a hard-earned distrust, according to the American Union. The National Human Rights Commission revealed in its most recent diagnosis on national prisons that the average evaluation of a state prison is 6.3 points out of ten due to the presence of illicit activities or insufficient security and custody personnel, among other fundamental flaws.
And in the 14 federal social rehabilitation centers – which are the prisons with the highest security in the country – none of them exceeds the score of nine points, mainly due to “self-government,” that is, the effective control of the prison is in the hands of a handful of inmates, not the authorities.
Currently, in Papantla, Veracruz, the construction of what is promised to be the maximum security prison in the entire country is underway – surpassing, even, the famous Altiplano or Almoloya prison – whose announcement dates back to 2009.
In its more than 15 years of construction, it has seen the passage of former presidents Felipe Calderón, Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, while it awaits an early inauguration.
Armored prison, anonymous judges and high technology
The mega-prison for drug traffickers is designed, for now, as a facility that will have the latest technology to inhibit the signal of cell phones and satellite radios, triple perimeter protection and the figure of masked guards who could accompany faceless judges in specialized courts built inside the prison with special protection so that inmates don’t have communication with the outside, even during court hearings.
The use of artificial intelligence will have a crucial role: the most modern prisons in the world, such as Minga Guazú, in Paraguay, already have cameras with cutting-edge technology that perform facial recognition at exits and detect unusual movements – such as jumping, running or loitering – to prevent escapes.
At the end of February, the Mexican government transferred 29 leaders of organized crime to the United States, where they will be tried and, if necessary, punished with the death penalty; In that “package” were high-value criminals such as the brothers Miguel Ángel and Omar Treviño Morales, ‘Z-40’ and ‘Z-42’, Rafael Caro Quintero, Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Érick Valencia Salazar and more.
El Salvador, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile…
The U.S.-Mexico prison for drug lords could be inspired by different formats already operating in Latin America.
The most famous is the so-called “Bukele model”, implemented by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who ordered the construction of the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) as a crucial part of his war strategy against Central American gangs.
Opened in January 2023 after an investment of 115 million dollars, the so-called “largest prison in Latin America” with its 23 hectares has been both praised and criticized for the harsh conditions in which the inmates live: no contact with the outside, lights that are never turned off, shared cells – without privacy – that can only be left for 30 minutes a day to exercise under the supervision of surveillance cameras and riot police.
“This is the model that would please the United States the most, without a doubt. When Secretary of State Marco Rubio learned about the ‘Bukele model’ he never tired of praising it.”
“He does it also because President Nayib Bukele offered him that he can audit it as many times as he wants and that control pleases the Trump administration,” a source from the United States Department of Justice told this newspaper.
Another similar Latin American model uses national waters to keep inmates as far away from land as possible: these are the “floating prisons” proposed by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, a supporter of “Bukelism.”
During his election campaign, Noboa was inspired by the offshore prisons that exist in the United States and the United Kingdom and proposed to confront the problem of corruption in Ecuadorian prisons with what he also called “penitentiary barges” that have a capacity for 300 or 400 inmates and would be located more than 1,200 kilometers from the coast, far from any telephone signal.
The measure, he acknowledged, would be temporary, while at least two maximum security prisons are built, where roll call is done with biometric technology based on iris, active monitoring of inmates to guarantee their isolation and locks with anti-terrorism bollards.
Another close associate of Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump, Argentine President Javier Milei, hopes to soon see the completion of “El Infierno,” the informal name for the new maximum security prison in the South American country, which promises to toughen even the most drastic measures in the El Salvadorian Cecot.
“We will put microphones in the cells, if justice allows it, and the inmates will not have physical contact with their families. The regime will be super-rigorous,” the Argentine authorities promised at the presentation of the project that aims to have 24 surveillance towers.
Meanwhile, in Chile, center-left President Gabriel Boric authorized last year the construction of a maximum security prison only for leaders of organized crime gangs, which among other features has tunnels that connect the penitentiary complex with the Justice Center, where the courts are located, so that the inmates cannot even see the light of day when they meet with their lawyers.
Source: Milenio
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