Peru’s President Keiko Fujimori wants to tour CECOT, the Salvadoran mega-prison where Human Rights Watch and a Salvadoran rights group documented torture and abuse of detainees. She’s asking the Senate to approve the trip. The government filed its request on Monday, October 5, seeking permission for an official visit to El Salvador from October 28 to 31, at the invitation of President Nayib Bukele’s government.
The prison serves as the model for a project Fujimori campaigned on: a high-security mega-prison in Peru built on the CECOT template, Infobae reported.
What the Trip Involves
Fujimori and Prime Minister Luis Galarreta, head of the cabinet, signed a letter to Senate President Miguel Ángel Torres of Fuerza Popular, the conservative party Fujimori leads. The Council of Ministers approved the trips on Friday, October 2, and the government submitted draft legislative resolution official letter No. 283-2026-PR. Peru’s president needs Senate permission to travel abroad. Galarreta, who’s also first vice president, would run the presidency while she’s away. No vote date has been announced.
CECOT sits at the centre of the itinerary. On Thursday, October 29, Fujimori is scheduled to meet Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador’s minister of justice and public security, and visit the prison. A private meeting with Bukele follows at 5 p.m., then talks with ministers and a dinner in her honour. On Friday, October 30, she’s due at Hospital Rosales with Health Minister Francisco Alabi, then a meeting with Education Minister Karla Trigueros and a public school visit. Trigueros is expected to brief her on “Dos Escuelas por Día” (“Two Schools a Day”), a programme to repair run-down schools or build new ones.
The letter says the visit would “reinforce the bilateral relationship” through exchanges of experience in security, justice, education and health. It names “the fight against transnational organised crime” and “strengthening the prison system” as priorities.
What Rights Groups Found at CECOT
CECOT, short for Terrorism Confinement Centre, sits in Tecoluca and can hold 40,000 inmates, according to Infobae. The number held there now isn’t known.
The documented findings are troubling. Human Rights Watch, 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 the 238 flown in on 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.
A Broader Security Turn
The trip follows a broader pattern. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Fujimori in Lima on Thursday, September 10. Afterward, Fujimori announced Peru would join the US-backed “Shield of the Americas” against organised crime. Rubio called gangs “terrorist groups” that extort people, according to Peru’s presidency. Fujimori’s government has asked Congress for powers to declare such gangs “hostile groups and terrorist groups.”
In September, she also sought Inter-American Development Bank experience and financing to expand Peru’s prisons, her office said. Speaking at a New York Stock Exchange closing-bell event on Thursday, September 24, she said Peru treats foreign and local investors alike and named crime and a new El Niño event as major challenges.
The calendar is tight. Fujimori would return to Peru on October 31, leaving Sunday, November 1, as her only full day at home before the 30th Ibero-American Summit in Madrid. She’s scheduled to be in Madrid from Monday, November 2, to Friday, November 6, with the summit itself on November 4 and 5. The Senate approved her first foreign trip as president, to the UN General Assembly in New York, on Wednesday, September 16, by 34 votes to 12, with three abstentions.
Much remains unanswered. The government hasn’t disclosed what either trip will cost. No one knows whether Peru and El Salvador will sign an agreement during the visit, or when, or at what price Peru might build the CECOT-style prison she promised.
Why This Matters:
The trip puts a head of state, 71 days into her term, at a facility that rights investigators say was the site of torture and abuse, and where nearly half of the Venezuelans deported had no criminal record in the United States. The Senate’s vote is the one formal check on the visit. It will show how seriously lawmakers weigh those documented findings against the appeal of a tough-on-crime model. Questions about cost, any signed agreement and the timeline and price of a Peruvian copy of CECOT matter too: they bear on how public money gets spent and whether Peruvians will get a say in a prison system built on a template with a contested human rights record. Education and health stops sit on the same itinerary, a reminder that safety and social investment don’t have to be an either-or choice.