Mega prison opened in El Salvador: room for 40,000 prisoners

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:38

In El Salvador, the first detainees have been transferred to a new huge prison. With a capacity of 40,000 people, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo is one of the largest in the Americas.

About 2,000 gang members were brought there today. “This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, among themselves, where they can no longer harm the people,” writes Salvadoran President Bukele Twitter.

Video footage shows how the prisoners, dressed in white shorts with shaved heads, are led through the new prison into the cells:

Mega prison opened in El Salvador

The Central American country of El Salvador has been suffering from a lot of (gang) violence for longer. The Bukele government declared a state of emergency a year ago after 62 murders were committed within 24 hours. The state of emergency has since been extended several times.

In El Salvador, people can therefore be arrested without an arrest warrant, private conversations can be tapped by the government and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer. More than 64,000 suspects have been arrested since the state of emergency was declared.

Catch all criminals

The harsh repression of the Bukele government has also led to much criticism from human rights groups. They say people are arbitrarily rounded up based on their appearance, age or socio-economic status.

Yet Bukele’s approach remains very popular among Salvadorans. The country’s security minister tells Reuters news agency that the country will continue in the same way “until all criminals are caught”.

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