The Government of El Salvador transferred 2,000 alleged gang members to a new prison that has a capacity for some 40,000 people this Friday morning, according to President Nayib Bukele.
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“Today at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT),” the president published on his social networks.
He added: “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, mixed, without being able to do more harm to the population.”
Despite the fact that the Government did not notify about the transfers, dozens of relatives mobilized to the La Esperanza prison, known as Mariona, in San Salvador. According to EFE, some 150 people gathered in this place and several buses left the premises.
(Read: In photos: how is the inside of the new “mega-prison” inaugurated in El Salvador)
Bukele inaugurated the CECOT at the end of January and the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, told the president that this “would become the largest prison in all of America” and that “it would be impossible for a prisoner to leave” the compound, which has 23 hectares of construction.
The construction of this prison occurred amid criticism from the opposition, which has pointed out a lack of transparency, mainly due to the approval in the Legislative Assembly, dominated by the ruling party, of a law that allowed bypassing the usual controls in state works.
(Also: El Salvador: this is the jail for 40,000 prisoners that President Bukele inaugurated)
At the beginning of February, Amnesty International (AI) expressed its concern about this new prison in El Salvador, expressing its “deep concern” given that “the construction of this new prison could mean the continuity and escalation of these abuses.”
According to official figures, under the emergency regime, approved last March after an escalation of murders, more than 64,000 people have been detained, whom the government accuses of being gang members, and of whom more have been released. of 3,300.
Salvadoran humanitarian organizations and the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDDH) have received more than 7,900 complaints of abuses, most of them for arbitrary detentions.
The authorities attribute the drop in homicides to this measure and the Territorial Control Plan, which according to official accounts were 496 in 2022, 57% less than in 2021.
EFE
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