SAN SALVADOR – The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, presented this January 31 the new prison for gang members known as the “Center for the Confinement of Terrorism” (CECOT), located in the municipality of Tecoluca, in the department of San Vicente.
According to the director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna, who led the tour together with the Salvadoran president, the mega-prison will house 40,000 “high-ranking” gang members, as well as “anyone who is in a terrorist structure.”
The prison has, in addition to pavilions for the confinement of inmates, a building for custodians, access control with a full body scanner and a package scanner.
Inside and outside the facilities, more than 600 soldiers and 250 police officers will support security tasks in case of any possible disturbance.
“This will become the largest prison in all of America,” according to the authorities.
El Salvador has been under an emergency regime for ten months, a measure with which the government seeks to imprison 118,000 gang members.
From March 27, 2022 to January 30 of this year, 62,975 people were captured under this measure.
Prisons exceed three times their capacity
In February 2021, El Salvador had the capacity to detain 30,864 people, according to the General Directorate of Penal Centers. Although there is no data on the current prison population, it is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been detained to date.
Prison overcrowding is not a new issue, but it is more acute now, according to the San Salvador-based human rights organization Cristosal.
In a report published at the end of 2022, “there is an exaggerated overpopulation and excessive overcrowding” in El Salvador.
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