El Salvador

El Salvador's government moved thousands of suspected gang members to a newly opened "mega prison" on Friday, the latest step in a controversial crackdown ...

Since then, more than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime dragnet. Arrests can be made without a warrant, private communications are accessible by the government, and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer. [El Salvador’s government](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/americas/el-salvador-war-on-gangs-bukele-intl-latam/index.html) moved thousands of suspected [gang members](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/25/us/gang-members-arrested-california/index.html) to a newly opened “mega prison” on Friday, the latest step in a controversial crackdown on crime that has caused the Central American nation’s prison population to soar.

Officials in El Salvador have transferred 2000 gang members to a mega-prison for terrorism amid President Nayib Bukele's war on organized crime in the ...

It is under continuous surveillance from the country's military and national police. [declared a state of emergency](https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/03/27/el-salvador-allows-constitution-rights-suspension-gang-violence-76-murders/8951648410899/) allowing for the temporary suspension of some constitutional rights in an effort to combat soaring gang violence. "Today at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT)," Bukele said

The first 2,000 inmates of a new prison built in El Salvador to accommodate more than 40,000 suspected gangsters targeted in President Nayib Bukele's “war” ...

There are only 80 metal bunks for every 100 prisoners, and rights groups and observers have criticised the construction as a violation of incarceration standards. “Know that you will never walk out of CECOT, you will pay for what you are… cowardly terrorists,” he added.

Chilling photos show the first hardcore gangbangers moved into a new mega-prison in El Salvador that President Nayib Bukele has boasted is "impossible to ...

“Today at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism,” The prisoners are forced to crouch down with their hands behind their heads while chained inside the massive facility, which authorities claim is the largest in the Americas. Chilling photos show the first hardcore gangbangers moved into a new mega-prison in El Salvador that President Nayib Bukele has boasted is “impossible to escape.”

The first 2000 inmates arrive at El Savador's new mega-prison, where cells with just two toilets and 80 metal beds are designed to hold more than 100 ...

cowardly terrorists." - The cells, of about 100 square metres, are designed to hold "more than 100" inmates A new mega-prison in El Salvador, built to accommodate more than 40,000 suspected gangsters jailed as part of the president's "war" on crime, has seen the first 2,000 inmates arrive.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele spent the weekend sharing images of inmates being moved into the mega prison, running while bent over, wearing white shorts, ...

[past year](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/26/el-salvador-prison-nayib-bukele-gangs-crime/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21). Bukele has denied the allegations and instead promised [“a war on gangs.”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/22/salvador-bukele-gang-arrests-crackdown/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16) Human Rights Watch argues that it is difficult to independently verify how much crime in the country has truly reduced. However, despite being built across 165 hectares in an isolated part of the country, the prison’s proposed inmate density is almost three times as high as Rikers Island, according to After Bukele won the presidency in February 2019, gangs made agreements with the government to reduce the number of public murders, “which politically benefited the government of El Salvador,” the U.S. [said ](https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1550300348073607168)last year. The number includes hundreds of children who were placed in youth detention facilities, according to [Amnesty International](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/el-salvador-president-bukele-human-rights-crisis/). Pappier said Bukele’s timing to transfer the detainees to the mega prison was suspect. It’s officially called the “Center for the Confinement of Terrorism” and was unveiled [earlier this month](https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1620789844627820544). This was followed by mass arrests of suspected gang members. It appeared as if the murder rate was dropping, “when in fact, MS-13 leaders continued to authorize murders where the victims’ bodies were buried or otherwise hidden.” federal attorneys accused government officials of cutting deals with gang leaders.

The first 2000 inmates of a new prison built in El Salvador to accommodate more than 40000 suspected gangsters targeted in President Nayib Bukele's “war” on ...

They were loaded onto buses, hands and feet in shackles, to be taken to the new prison in a convoy that included helicopters. Bukele tweeted that “at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2000 members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT)” — which he claims is the largest mega-prison in the Americas. The first 2000 inmates of a new prison built in El Salvador to accommodate more than 40,000 suspected gangsters targeted in President Nayib Bukele’s “war” on crime arrived at the facility Friday.

Massive new prison built to house gang members as murder rates plummet. Fact is, prisons work.

When your society is under overwhelming attack from satanic criminals, of the sort that play soccer with human heads, you need to meet force with stronger force, of the sort that can return law and order to the streets. But it is also true that a society that refuses to imprison its violent criminals, and that allows them to threaten the lives and the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens, is also a failing society. I remember the Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1987 when I began to turn against the Left, despite having been a campus liberal my first two years of college. The distinction is this: the society that is failing in the first instance -- whether its poor black America, or whatever segment of Salvadoran society is producing gang members -- is the one that turns out anti-social young men. “And for you to be able to walk down the street and get a Coca-Cola or what have you, you have to make sure you are part of something so you’re not preyed upon. “The beast basically is the devil,” Del Cid explained in court. Now we have to pray to the beast that we will not be caught.” Certainly the need for such a prison is not a sign of a healthy society. But what is the alternative for the people of El Salvador, overrun by MS-13 and other gangs? In June 2014, Del Cid and two fellow MS-13 members were “on patrol” in Alexandria when they attacked someone they mistakenly thought belonged to the 18th Street gang. The reality is that the scale of the project defies common sense — and easy comprehension. Maintaining an indefinite state of emergency and a high incarceration rate won’t come cheap, and the country’s economy is not healthy.

The first group of hardcore gang members have been transferred to the new prison, which is located in Tecoluca, approximately 46 miles from the country's ...