El Salvador’s Mega-Prusson was known long before the Trump administration’s recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged members of the Venezuelan band gang there.
The Center for Terrorism, to give it its full name, is considered to be the most prison in America – with a capacity of 40,000 prisoners – and is the largest symbol in the controversial repression of the Latin American country for domestic crime.
He is now home to some of the most beloved criminals in the country, including the mass murderers and gang members, charged as “the worst of the worst” and is known for the Spartan conditions in which they are stored.
On a recent visit David Culver and his team of CNN described cells “built to hold 80 or more prisoners”, where men are kept for 23.5 hours a day and “the only furniture is multi -level metal buns, no sheets, cushions and a large toilet, cement.
It is currently believed that about 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners are accommodated there, with 261 people being arriving the latest, which the Trump administration has deported from the United States over the weekend-238 of which it is accused of belonging to the Venezuela Ganga de Aragua and 23 alleged members of the MS-13 gang.
El Salvador leader Naib Bouke-President of a strong man and self-styled “the coolest dictator in the world” has offered to accommodate the US deportes in Cecot as part of an unprecedented deal in which the United States will pay $ 6 million in return. The money will help maintain the El Salvador’s penitentiary system, which currently costs $ 200 million a year.
Raw conditions
Those deported from the United States received the taste of uncompromising prison policies as soon as they arrived on Sunday morning.
The officers kept their head down to the waist level as they accompanied them to the facility in chains. The new prisoners were then forced to kneel as the prison guards shave their hair and called commands.
In this photo of the distribution received on March 16 by the press center of the presidency of El Salvador, an escort by Salvadoran Escort police, the Venezuelan band Tren de Aragua, recently deported from the United States. – the presidential service/distribution of El Salvador to Salvador
“We fulfill the letter of a regiment, to which you will obey from that moment on, where prison security staff will be treated with absolute respect! Is this clear? “An officer is calling on visibly disturbed prisoners in a video shared by the Salvadoran government.
Such brutal introductions have been a hallmark of prison since prisoners began to live a few years ago.
The images published by the government in 2023 show that some of the first prisoners were transferred to the facility stripped of white boxer shorts, with their heads shaved as they were forced to encounter their cells.
The CNN team, which at the end of 2024, described the deprivation as “deliberate”, noting that the men were allowed by their crowded cells for only 30 minutes a day, that “there is no confidentiality here, there is no trace of comfort” and the lights are 24/7.
“They don’t work. They are not allowed books or deck cards or letters from home. Food plates are arranged outside the cells during meals and pulled through the bars. No meat is served. The 30-minute daily rest is simply to leave the cage for the central corridor for group exercises or readings of the Bible, “writes David Klver and his CNN team.
Prisoners are not allowed visits from family or friends and some of them must be confronted with the possibility of never being released.
“We believe in rehabilitation, but only for ordinary criminals,” said Public Security Minister Gustavo Villato during a visit to CNN.
The prisoners, shot by CNN in late 2024, are stored in group cells for 23.5 hours a day. – Evelio contrras/CNN
Civil freedoms are suspended
Secot is housed both convicted criminals and those who still pass through the Judicial System of El Salvador. Some people have even been closed without a proper process, critics say.
Prisoners are part of a bouquet’s controversial efforts to overcome the high crime and violence rates with bands that have been struck by the country for years.
In 2022, a bouquet with the support of the legislators declared an emergency, which allowed the government to temporarily suspend the constitutional rights, including the right to legal protection granted by the state. The measure was intended to last for 30 days, but has been extended dozens of times and continues to this day.
During the three years of his announcement, security forces have arrested nearly 87,000 people across the country or more than 1% of Salvadoran’s population, according to authorities.
The government insists that repression has made the country more fascinated, but critics say it has violated the rights of people and has led to countless cases of unlawful detainees.
Bouke has admitted that some innocent people have been detained by mistake, but says several thousand of them have already been released. He claims that difficult measures were needed to transform the country from being called the “capital of the murder of the world” to what it now considers to be one of the most secure on Earth.
Previous reporting by David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Evelio Contreras, Rachel Clark, Alison Main, Kevin Lipthot, Jesse Yong, Veronica Calderon and Merlin Delizid.
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