Q24N (EFE) The Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Cecot) – Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, a new prison with a capacity for at least 40,000 gang members, is “the most secure prison in Latin America,” according to the Government of El Salvador, which also ensures that the detainees “do not have no privileges.”
At the moment, according to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, there are 4,000 gang members who are already in the facilities, located in an isolated rural area in the central municipality of Tecoluca, more than 75 kilometers from the capital of San Salvador.
“The 4,000 gang members confined in the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), in Tecoluca, San Vicente, have verified firsthand that the security measures in their facilities are inviolable, without any type of privileges and that they will never return to the streets to attempt against the lives of Salvadorans,” the government published this Sunday on social networks.
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.
Amnesty International expressed its concern about this new prison in El Salvador, and its “deep concern”, given that “the construction of this new prison could mean the continuity and escalation of these abuses.”
However, neither the criticism of the new prison nor the implementation of an emergency regime, which suspend constitutional guarantees, seem to deteriorate the image of President Bukele.
91% of Salvadorans approve of the work that Bukele has done, after three years and nine months in office, according to a recently published survey by the local newspaper La Prensa Gráfica.
