SAN SALVADOR, Feb 24 (Portal) – El Salvador’s government on Friday moved thousands of suspected gang members to a newly opened ‘mega-prison’, the latest move in a controversial crackdown on crime that is killing the Central American nation’s prison population pushed up.
“This will be their new home where they can no longer harm the population,” President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.
Around 2,000 accused gang members were transferred early Friday morning to the 40,000-capacity prison, believed to be the largest in America.
In a video posted by Bukele, inmates in white shorts and shaved heads can be seen running through the new prison to cells. Lots of bear gang tattoos.
Bukele urged his allies in El Salvador’s Congress last year to pass a state of emergency that has since been extended several times, suspending some constitutional rights following a dramatic spike in killings attributed to violent gangs.
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Since then, more than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the crime-fighting dragnet. Arrests can be made without a warrant, private communications are accessible to the government and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer.
Human rights organizations argue that innocent people have been implicated in the politics, including at least dozens who have died in police custody.
But Bukele’s anti-gang push remains popular with Salvadorans, and the country’s security minister told Portal it will continue until all the criminals are caught.
Reporting by Nelson Renteria; writing from Kylie Madry; Adaptation by Leslie Adler
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