The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, presented this week the “largest jail in America”, where he will lock up 40,000 suspected gang members. It is a mega-prison that was built in an isolated rural area in a valley near Tecoluca, 74 km southeast of San Salvador, and was inspected by Bukele himself.
According to the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, the 166-hectare property has a dozen pavilions that occupy 23 hectares. Called by the government “Center for the Confinement of Terrorism”, it has surveillance systems with video circuits and scanners to review those who enter.
The prison has a 2.1 kilometer perimeter wall, which will be guarded day and night by 600 soldiers and 250 police officers.
This is what prison is like inside.
(You can read: El Salvador: citizens exchange their rights to reduce gang violence)
The history of the prison
The mega-prison in El Salvador, considered “the largest in America”, It is characterized by a high level of security and promises severe treatment for 40,000 arrested gang members in the framework of a “war” declared by President Nayib Bukele.
Built in a rural valley a short distance from the imposing Chichontepec volcano, in Tecoluca, some 74 km southeast of San Salvador, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) stands out for its rigorous entry controls.
According to the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, they sought to “guarantee a space far from urban areas. Prisons in El Salvador have normally been on a par with schools, even hospitals, and housing centers.”
“In the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism will be housed people who have hurt and mourned Salvadoran families,” said the official.
(You may be interested: Nayib Bukele attacks his critics: “They are against the Salvadorans”)
The prison was built to detain part of the 62,975 gang members detained under an emergency regime that was decreed by Congress at the request of Bukele, in response to an escalation of violence that claimed the lives of 87 people between
on March 25 and 27.
In order to build the prison the State bought 166 hectares, 23 of which were used to build eight pavilionss that are within a perimeter surrounded by a concrete wall 11 meters high and 2.1 kilometers long, protected by electrified barbed wire.
(Also: Bukele encloses a municipality with 10,000 soldiers to capture gang members)
In order to enter the prison, both inmates and security and administrative personnel have to reach registration areas. before passing through three fortified gates controlled by security guards.
Each gang member who arrives, in addition to going through a body scanner to avoid
The transfer of illicit items such as drugs and sharp objects must be registered in an entrance area where photographs will be taken.
“Thanks to this technology, we can say that the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism will have all the necessary equipment to guarantee that from inside this prison the inmates are not guaranteeing criminal acts,” said the prison director, whose name was not provided by security.
The authorities have not informed when the transfer of gang members to the mega-prison will begin.
To give the prison autonomy, the Salvadoran Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, declared that two wells were drilled, a 600 cubic meter water supply plant was installed, four cisterns, and eight electric power substations were built.
In order to guarantee electricity, the prison also has fuel-based emergency plants. A sewage plant was also built.
(Keep reading: ‘They defend the rights of criminals and not those of honest people’: Bukele)
In front of the cell blocks, there is a control room to operate the water and electricity systems so that the inmates do not have the ability to “manipulate” both services, explained the director.
The pavilions have a curved roof that guarantees natural ventilation for the prisoners. In the prison, which was built in a record time of seven months, 3,000 people worked and was supervised by a Mexican company.
This is the prison inside
Inside the prison there are 19 watchtowers and thermal cameras that identify
the movement of people. “Normally, telephones, televisions and even prostitutes were brought into prisons (…) they have tried to guarantee that orders are no longer given from prisons to murder Salvadorans (…) through this prison that we have built, we are guaranteeing that this does not happen,” said Rodríguez.
Each pavilion has a construction area of 6,000 square meters, and in each of its 32 cells equipped with steel bars, “more than one hundred” gang members will be housed, he explained.
Minister Rodriguez.
(More news: This is the “prison regime” to which gang members will be subjected in El Salvador)
The inmates have in each cell -about 100 square meters-, two sinks with running water for personal hygiene, and two toilets.
Each cell also has iron sheet cabins without mattresses to sleep 80 people.
Also, in each pavilion there are dark and windowless “punishment cells” that will be used with gang members for bad conduct.
“No patios (…) recreation areas or conjugal spaces have been built,” so the gang members will only leave the cell when they go to a room for their virtual judicial process.
A) Yes, the imprisoned gang members will remain totally isolated and incommunicado with the outside world. The inmates will have to shower and relieve themselves inside the cell, and they will only be able to go out to the hearing room, the medical assistance area or one of the punishment cells.
(Also read: Bukele offers to “open” operations and prisons to a new Salvadoran attorney general)
In this new prison, the members of the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18, born in the streets of the American city of Los Angeles in the early 1980s, will be housed.
The main activities of these groups consist of extortion of individuals and businesses, hit men and the sale of drugs.
The construction of the prison, which has led to criticism from the opposition and from national and international human rights entities, takes place in the context of an exceptional regime in force since the end of March 2022 and which has been extended 10 times in terms of 30 days.
So far, the authorities report the capture of more than 62,900 suspected gang members.
(In other news: Nayib Bukele: the keys on the road to seeking re-election in El Salvador)
The Salvadoran government attributes the emergency regime -implemented in a so-called “war” against gangs- and its Territorial Control plan for the drop in homicides by 57% in 2022.
Gangs, a phenomenon considered a legacy of the civil war (1980-1992) and which was strengthened with the deportation of gang members from the United States, have resisted different security plans from the last four governments.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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