El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on Friday that thousands of prisoners, including gang collaborators, They receive training in different areas to “rebuild” the Central American country.
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“Thousands of non-dangerous prisoners, including associates of gang members (though not gang members themselves), are being trained to help us rebuild our country“, Bukele said on social network X.
We are seeking self-sustainability of penitentiary centers
Following heavy rains that have caused landslides and flooding since June, Squads of prisoners participate in different tasks to mitigate the damageespecially on the road network.
In this way, prisoners “will be able to repair part of the damage they have caused to society,” Bukele said.
The president also published a video on X in which inmates are shown doing construction work, agriculture, clothing making, fumigation, electronic equipment repair, among others.
During a radio and television broadcast on Friday night, Bukele said that the State spends “almost 150 million dollars” a year to maintain the penitentiary system.
“We are seeking self-sustainability of penitentiary centers”declared the Vice Minister of Justice and Director General of Prisons, Osiris Luna. Nearly 48,000 prisoners will be trained in different areas, Luna said.
The textile workshop, with 5,400 inmates, will have to produce 2.4 million uniforms to be given to public school pupils next year. Another 6,000 prisoners will join a government construction company to repair schools, hospitals and build roads.
The rest of the prisoners will work in other productive areas. In power since 2019, Bukele has been waging a “war” against gangs since March 2022 under a state of emergency, which has resulted in more than 80,000 alleged gang members being detained.
The state of emergency, which allows arrests without a court order, was decreed by Congress at the request of the president in response to an escalation of violence that claimed the lives of 87 people between March 25 and 27, 2022.
Human rights organizations question the detention of innocent people under the state of emergency and the conditions of imprisonment.
With a prison population exceeding 111,000, according to independent humanitarian organizations, El Salvador has 1,764 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest averages in the world.
The anti-gang crusade reduced criminal activity in the country and favored the reelection of Bukele, who began his second term on June 1.
AFP
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