Firstly 2,000 inmates in the new prison was built in El Salvador to house more than 40,000 gang members suspected of being targeted in President Nayib Bukele’s “war” against crime.
Bukele tweeted on Friday: “At dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 members to the Detention Center for Terrorism (CECOT),” which he says is the largest prison in the country. Americas.
“This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, all mixed, no further harm to the people,” the president said.
Human rights groups say the state of emergency that Bukele used to make the arrests has resulted in serious human rights abuses. Among them are “mass arbitrary detention, torture and other ills against detainees, death in custody, and prosecution of abuses,” says Human Rights Watch. in a statement.
Bukele posted a video showing barefoot, tattooed men, wearing only white shorts, crouching with their hands behind their shaved heads. Each prisoner sat with his legs crossed on either side of the man in front of him as hooded armed guards guarded the prisoners.
They were put on buses, with their hands and feet shackled, to the new prison in a convoy that included helicopters.
At the new facility, men were similarly lined up before being led in large groups to their cells, where they were left to sit on the floor next to stacked metal beds. The warden told journalists while revealing the facility that mattresses would not be provided.
“We are removing this cancer from society,” Justice and Public Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said on Twitter of the prisoners.
“Know that you will never walk out of CECOT, you will pay the price for what you are… cowardly terrorists,” he said.
