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March 16, 2023 | 1:13 p.m
Another 2,000 suspected gang members have been taken to El Salvador’s revered mega-prison, the country’s president announced on Wednesday as he unveiled more footage of the “impossible escape” facility.
The newcomers joined another 2,000 accused gangsters who landed at the new terrorism containment center last month as El Salvador tries to win its battle against angry violent street gangs.
President Nayib Bukele aired fresh footage of the prison and its new prisoners being hustled off buses and into the facility while surrounded by heavily armed guards.
Inside the prison, the tattooed men in white shorts, barefoot, and handcuffed can be seen huddled together, crouching and hanging their shaved heads before running into the prison cells.
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First day, in a new operation, transferred to the group of 2,000 pandilleros in the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
Con esto, ya son 4,000 pandilleros los que habitan la carcel más critada del mundo. pic.twitter.com/A2oTUIYubW
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 15, 2023
“There are now 4,000 gang members in the most criticized prison in the world,” Bukele said in a tweet.
The prison has a capacity for 40,000 people.
It was previously reported that the jail, located 46 miles from the Central American country’s capital, would hold inmates in eight buildings, each with 32 cells for 100 prisoners each.
Each cell has only two toilets and two sinks.
Gang members wait to be taken to their cell after 2000 gang members were transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center on March 15, 2023. Portal An inmate is pictured during the second arrival of MS 13 and 18th Street members being transported to the new prison ‘Terrorist Confinement Center’ (CECOT) in Tecoluca March 15, 2023. EL SALVADORS PRESIDENCY PRESS O/ AFP via Getty Images
The prison is considered the largest in America.
Bukele has boasted it is “impossible to escape”.
While Bukele is taking a proactive approach in his war on gangs, the initiative has raised concerns among human rights monitors that basic constitutional rights are being violated, including concerns that people are being jailed without warrants.
Over the past year, more than 60,000 suspected gang members have been arrested by the country’s army or police.
Members of street gangs MS-13 and 18 are shown at the new Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) prison in Tecoluca on March 15, 2023. EL SALVADORS PRESIDENCY PRESS O/AFP via Getty Images Inmates sit on the prison floor of the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador on March 15, 2023. AP
The government’s justice and peace minister, Gustavo Villatoro, said the suspected gang members would never take to the streets again, although some 57,000 of those arrested are still awaiting formal charges or a trial.
“They will never return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” Villatoro said.
With mail wires
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