Peru’s President Keiko Fujimori has asked the Senate to approve a foreign trip that includes a tour of CECOT, the prison associated with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. Her government filed the request Monday, October 5. The proposed visit, scheduled for October 28 to 31, follows Fujimori’s campaign promise to build a high-security mega-prison modeled on CECOT, Infobae reported.
The state prepares its prison model
The Council of Ministers approved the trips Friday, October 2, but Fujimori still needs Senate permission to travel abroad. The government submitted draft legislative resolution official letter No. 283-2026-PR. The Senate hasn’t announced a vote date. Fujimori will travel only if the legislature approves the request. The people whose lives the prison model could shape have no comparable role in that decision, according to the letter.
Fujimori and Prime Minister Luis Galarreta, the head of the cabinet, signed the letter to Senate President Miguel Ángel Torres of Fuerza Popular. Galarreta, also the first vice president, would run the presidency during Fujimori’s absence. She took office Tuesday, July 28, and leads Fuerza Popular (Popular Force), a conservative party.
Prison policy sits at the center of the proposed itinerary. Fujimori is scheduled to meet Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador’s minister of justice and public security, and tour CECOT Thursday, October 29. A private meeting with Bukele is set for 5 p.m., followed by talks with ministers and a dinner in her honour. The letter says the visit would “reinforce the bilateral relationship” through exchanges on security, justice, education and health, with “the fight against transnational organised crime” and “strengthening the prison system” listed as priorities.
What the prison record contains
CECOT, short for Terrorism Confinement Centre, stands in Tecoluca and can hold 40,000 inmates, Infobae reported. No one knows how many prisoners are currently held there. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, and Cristosal, a Salvadoran group, found that the Trump administration sent 252 Venezuelan migrants to the prison in March and April 2025.
Of 238 people flown there March 15, authorities removed 137 under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law. A report dated November 12, 2025, said detainees suffered torture and other abuse until authorities sent them to Venezuela on July 18, 2025. At least 48.8% of those deported had no criminal history in the United States, the report found. The account supplied for the Senate request doesn’t say whether Peru and El Salvador will sign an agreement during the visit.
A campaign promise, with the bill still unknown
Fujimori’s government has asked Congress for powers to declare gangs “hostile groups and terrorist groups.” After meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Lima Thursday, September 10, Fujimori announced Peru would join the US-backed “Shield of the Americas” against organised crime. Peru’s presidency said Rubio called gangs “terrorist groups” that extort people.
The prison expansion plan still lacks a settled financial plan. In September, Fujimori also sought Inter-American Development Bank experience and financing to expand Peru’s prisons, her office said. The government hasn’t disclosed the cost of either trip, or when or at what cost Peru might build the CECOT-style prison promised in her campaign. The Senate hasn’t announced when it will vote. Meanwhile, Fujimori is scheduled to visit Hospital Rosales and a public school October 30, then return to Peru October 31.