The first 2,000 inmates of the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), a new prison built in El Salvador to house more than 40,000 suspected gang members targeted in President Nayib Bukele’s “war” on crime, have arrived. In a single operation, the inmates were transferred to the facility, which is said to be the largest prison in the Americas. Bukele declared that the inmates would remain in the prison for decades, unable to cause any further harm to the public.
Human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the state of emergency Bukele has used to make the arrests, citing reports of “mass arbitrary detention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment against detainees, deaths in custody, and abuse-ridden prosecutions”. Video footage posted by Bukele showed barefoot inmates wearing only white boxers, bent over with their hands behind their shaven heads. They were loaded onto buses with their hands and feet in shackles and guarded by armed personnel wearing balaclavas.
At the new facility, the inmates were lined up before being led in large groups into their cells. There, they were left sitting on the floor next to stacked metal beds, with no mattresses provided. Justice and Public Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro declared that the inmates were “eliminating this cancer from society” and warned that they would never walk out of CECOT.
The situation has been met with criticism from human rights organizations, who have called for greater protection of detainees’ rights. They have also urged for an independent investigation into reports of human rights violations. Despite this, Bukele has remained firm in his stance to tackle crime in El Salvador and has vowed to continue his efforts to ensure public safety.