El Salvador moves 2,000 alleged gang members to new 'mega prison'
The Salvadoran government has been accused of widespread abuses as it waives civil liberties to combat gang activity.
Dozens of people are reported to have died in prison amid a state of exception that has suspended civil liberties [File: Salvador Melendez/AP Photo]
Published On 25 Feb 2023
25 Feb 2023
The Central American nation of El Salvador has transferred 2,000 people accused of gang membership to a recently opened “mega-prison”. The transfer comes after a wave of anti-gang operations in which police swept up more than 64,000 people and key civil liberties were suspended.
In a Twitter post on Friday, President Nayib Bukele celebrated the arrival of the alleged gang members at the prison, which has space for 40,000 people and is said to be the largest in the Americas.
“At dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT),” said Bukele. “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population.”
Bukele and his allies passed a controversial “state of exception” last year, suspending key rights such as the right to a lawyer and the right to private communication. The declaration also allowed police to make arrests without a warrant and without explanation.
More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/25/el-salvador-moves-2000-alleged-gang-members-to-new-mega
= new reply since forum marked as read
Government moved thousands to a newly opened high-tech Terrorism Confinement Centre
By
Our Foreign Staff
24 February 2023 • 9:54pm
Police officers in riot gear guarding the arrival of inmates belonging to the MS-13 and 18 gangs to El Salvador's new prison "Terrorist Confinement Centre" CREDIT: AFP
. . .
The facility will eventually hold many of the more than 62,000 people authorities have arrested since the government suspended some constitutional rights and pushed an all-out offensive against the gangs last March.
The high-tech jail features a perimeter surrounded by a concrete wall 36ft high and over a mile long, protected by electrified wire fences. Its some 32 steel-barred cells will house “more than one hundred” gang members.
Each cell also has iron sheet cabins without mattresses to sleep 80 people. In addition, there are dark, windowless “punishment cells” that will be used for" misbehaving" gang members.
"This will be their new home, where they won't be able to do any more harm to the population," President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.
More:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/24/el-salvador-gang-members-arrive-largest-megaprison-americas/
Or:
https://archive.ph/9QAGc#selection-1321.0-1323.48
Sam Corbishley
Friday 24 Feb 2023 9:42 pm
. . .
Inmates arrive to the new prison ‘Terrorist Confinement Centre’ (CECOT) (Picture: Salvadorean Presidency/AFP via Getty)
The first 2,000 gang members were transferred from the Izalco prison (Picture: Salvadorean Presidency/AFP via Getty Images)
It is considered ‘America’s largest’ mega-prison (Picture: Salvadorean Presidency/AFP via Getty)
It is equipped with high-tech surveillance (Picture: Salvadorean Presidency/AFP via Getty)
. . .
Arrests can be made without a warrant, private communications are accessible by the government, and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer.
Human rights organisations argue that innocent people have been caught up in the policy, including dozens who have died in police custody.
But Bukele’s anti-gang push remains widely popular with Salvadorans, and the country’s security minister told Reuters it would continue until all criminals are captured.
More:
https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/24/thousands-of-gang-members-moved-to-new-mega-prison-in-el-salvador-18346200/
The fact these photos are the property of the President's office possibly might hint they were selectively taken, and chosen to "highlight" Bukele's magical crime-fighting powers, with possible political benefits for him. Just saying.
