Costa Rica looks to El Salvador's gang crackdown for path to stopping violence

TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — Costa Rica's security minister toured El Salvador's maximum-security gang prison on Friday as part of his review of the measures that El Salvador has taken to reduce violence caused by powerful street gangs during a now three-year offensive under a state of emergency.

Costa Rica Justice and Peace Minister Gerald Campos Valverde said he was visiting on orders of President Rodrigo Chaves to “see the good practices of the Salvadoran people with the goal of combating crime and to returning rights to all citizens.”

In November, Costa Rica bestowed its highest diplomatic honor on El Salvador President Nayib Bukele for his success in lowering levels of violence during his three-year campaign against powerful street gangs.

El Salvador has lived under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights like access to a lawyer. Some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties.

Homicides have plummeted in El Salvador and the improved security has fueled Bukele’s popularity.

“El Salvador’s rescue from those nefarious claws is also helping the peace in our region,” Chaves said when he presented Bukele with the recognition last year. “The fight against organized crime in any part of Central America is welcome. The reach and influence and bad example of the gangs must be reduced.”

Campos came away impressed by the gang prison Bukele built at the start of the state of emergency where Campos said he saw fundamental rights being respected.

The prison's director Belarmino García showed Campos one of the cells holding about 70 inmates. The prison director instructed the inmates to remove their shirts to show their tattooed torsos and asked some to identify their gang affiliation to show that members of rival gangs were sharing the same cell.

After his tour, Campos said that Costa Rica would not continue allowing criminals to be arrest by police only to see them quickly freed by the judicial system.

“We are going to take all of the good practices” back to Costa Rica “to give Costa Ricans a place of peace and tranquility,” he said.

El Salvador Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said earlier Friday that El Salvador was pleased to share its experience with Costa Rica, a country that until recently had been a reference for peace, but now struggles with bloodshed like El Salvador once had.

“This is not a question of copy and paste, but rather of learning what we have done and implementing in each country what precisely can be done to rescue thousands of Costa Ricans, thousands of Salvadorans and imprisoning hundreds,” Villatoro said.

El Salvador's new gang prison, where inmates are held in large cells and never allowed outside, has gained more attention in recent weeks after the U.S. government sent nearly 300 migrants, including more than 200 Venezuelans, it accused of having gang ties to be held there.

Costa Rica continues to struggle with historically high homicide numbers.

In 2023, Costa Rica set a homicide record with 907, down somewhat in 2024 to 880. So far this year, the country is on nearly the same homicide pace as last year, according to government data.

Unlike Bukele, Chaves does not hold a majority in Congress and has not remade Costa Rica’s courts to remove opposition.

Costa Rica — long applauded for a robust ecotourism industry, environmental conservation and relative peace — has been wracked by violence in recent years, largely attributed to drug trafficking. Costa Rica has become a key way station for cocaine exports to Europe and the United States.

Associated Press writer Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica contributed to this report.

Correctional officers stand guard at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025, during a tour by Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Costa Rica's Justice and Peace Minister Gerald Campos Valverde, left, tours the armory at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Prisoners sit in their cell as Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Costa Rica's Justice and Peace Minister Gerald Campos Valverde, center left, tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

A soldier stands guard at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025, during a tour by Costa Rica's Justice and Peace minister. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Prisoners sit in their cell as Costa Rica's Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Prisoners look from their cell as the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Prisoners look out from their cell as the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Costa Rica's Justice and Peace Minister Gerald Campos Valverde, left, tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Prisoners look out from their cell as the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.

Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.

U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.

"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”

Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.

“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”

Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.

U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.

Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.

Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.

Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.

"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.

The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.

The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.

“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.

“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”

The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)