For six months, more than 12,000 suspected members of El Salvador’s most feared gangs have been locked in their cells in the country’s notorious mega-prison.
Life in the huge Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca is horrific. The prisoners beg the officers to give food and medicine for the terminally ill dying around them.
The prison is filled with a staggering 12,114 prisoners – many of them bitter rivals of the two most feared gangs, MS-13 and Calle 18, and history shows how their foot soldiers use every opportunity to kill their enemies.
Each 100 square meter cell holds about 75 notoriously dangerous inmates, who sleep in metal cubicles and are forced to share only two toilets and two sinks.
They have no mattresses, no access to fresh air, and are regularly beaten and tortured by guards, human rights groups say.
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison where hundreds of members of the MS 13 and 18 Street gangs are being held in Tecoluco on Monday
Life in the huge Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca is horrible. The prisoners beg the officers to give food and medicine for the terminally ill dying around them
A tattooed gang member looks at the camera from a cell in the CECOT mega-prison on Tuesday
An inmate smears cream on a fellow inmate’s face in a cell of the mega-prison on Tuesday
Each 100 square meter cell holds about 75 notoriously dangerous inmates, who sleep in metal cubicles and are forced to share only two toilets and two sinks
The cells are empty, thick steel bars separate the alleged gang members from the heavily armed prison guards.
And when El Salvador’s Human Rights Commissioner, Colombian Andrés Guzmán, visited the notorious prison, which opened in January, he insisted that the inmates “were in good condition and their human rights were respected”.
But human rights groups compare conditions in prison to the concentration camps of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
A report by human rights group Cristosal revealed that 174 detainees have been tortured and horribly killed in the year since President Nayib Bukele launched his all-out campaign against the gangs.
“When you’re a kid, everyone tells you lies, sugarcoats it, and you make a mistake, and when you grow up (…) you realize that,” says Nelson Velásquez, 37, who works on MS-13. suffers’ (Mara Salvatrucha) tattooed on his head, said during Guzman’s visit.
The 40,000-capacity mega-prison began accepting inmates on February 24, and to date there are 12,114 suspected gang members, mostly accused of belonging to the violent MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs operating on the US city streets were born of Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
Pictures from inside the prison’s first 12,000 inmates show many with prominent tattoos of Roman numerals 18 or 13, with their gang affiliation etched in ink on their skin.
With so many rival gangsters under one roof, how are the authorities in El Salvador planning to prevent the same horrific violence seen in the streets from being repeated in prisons?
With his hands tied, white T-shirt and shorts, Velásquez, an inmate in Cell 13 of Building 3, says he has already served two prison sentences totaling 15 years for separate crimes but is now awaiting a new trial.
The cells are empty, thick steel bars separate the alleged gang members from the heavily armed prison guards.
Inmates train at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison on Monday.
Human rights groups have compared the prison conditions to the concentration camps of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Inmates speak Monday with the Presidential Envoy for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression, Colombian Andres Guzman Caballero
On Monday, inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison.
The prison is filled with a staggering 12,114 prisoners – many of them bitter rivals of the two most feared gangs, MS-13 and Calle 18, and history shows how their foot soldiers use every opportunity to kill their enemies
Inmates talk to the President’s representative for human rights and freedom of expression, Andres Guzman Caballero, about the conditions there
One prisoner is seen with his head tattooed with MS-18 – a notorious gang in El Salvador
The prison pavilions feature a curved roof to ensure natural ventilation for prisoners, as well as skylight rooms to filter the sun’s rays into a courtyard separating the cells.
Velásquez relates that the movement of the sun determines the order of the occupants, so each cell receives some rays.
“Here we try to change every day,” says José Hurquilla Bonilla from the Barrio 18 gang from a cell.
The jail was built to house some of the more than 70,000 gang members being held under an emergency regime that Congress enacted at Bukele’s request in response to an escalation in violence that took place between December 25 and December 27 87 lives lost in March, 2022.
To build the prison, the state purchased 166 hectares, 23 of which were used to build eight pavilions located within a perimeter surrounded by a concrete wall 11 meters high and 2.1 kilometers long and protected by electrified barbed wire . .
During the visit to the prison, Commissioner Guzmán asked the inmates about their situation in the cells and most of them said that “there is no shortage of water”, but asked for brooms and detergent to clean the cells.
Other prisoners complained about food shortages and urgently asked for medicines for people with terminal illnesses.
“There are many things to improve and a team is working every day,” Commissioner Guzmán replied to the inmates.
In a report after the first year of the emergency regime, human rights NGO Cristosal denounced the 174 deaths in state custody, calling it “an ongoing measure of repression and human rights abuses”.
The alleged gang members are sitting in their cell on Tuesday, where they have been for six months
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison.
A prisoner drinks a glass of water in his cell at the mega prison in El Salvador on Monday
An inmate speaks in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison.
On Monday, inmates sit on their metal beds at Tecoluca’s notorious mega-prison
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison.
But at CECOT, according to Guzmán, “inmates are in good condition (and) human rights are respected within the general parameters of a prison.”
After speaking to inmates from different cells, human rights lawyer Raquel Caballero said inmates had complained about food rations.
“They complain that there is not enough food” and “that they are free, they do nothing because they are locked up,” Caballero told AFP.
The detained gang members, according to the officer, “are aware that their actions (crimes) have brought them (so far) here.”
The lawyer said a medical team of 50, including nurses and doctors, was attending to the inmates.
A doctor stated that water samples are taken “daily” and sent to a laboratory to ensure their quality.
In February, CECOT began a strict regime in which inmates never left their cells and were still not allowed family visits, but for inmates like Velásquez, “the blessings flow with time,” he says, noting that the majority identify as referred to as “Christian”.
The opening of the prison is part of a crackdown on the two gangs, the pride of President Nayib Bukele’s campaign to end national violence.
Homicides in El Salvador — considered by many to be the world’s murder capital — have fallen 56.8 percent in 2022, but the result will be an overcrowded 40,000-seat prison full of the country’s most dangerous criminals, many of whom are incarcerated are opposite sides of a decades-long feud.
El Salvador’s historical crime problem dates back to a civil war in the 1980s.
When Latino refugees fled to America, gangs MS-13 and Calle 18 formed on the streets of Los Angeles. When the war ended, those from El Salvador returned. With them they brought their gang affiliations, rivalries and violence.
After speaking to inmates from different cells, human rights lawyer Raquel Caballero said inmates had complained about food rations
An inmate drinks water in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison Monday.
Life in the huge Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca is horrific. The prisoners beg the officers to give food and medicine for the terminally ill dying around them
A police officer guards inmates through a metal gate at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison on Monday.
Life in the huge Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca is horrible. The prisoners beg the officers to give food and medicine for the terminally ill dying around them
Currently, Calle 18 is thought to have around 65,000 members worldwide, while MS-13 has between 50,000 and 70,000. As their numbers grew, their influence spread.
For many years, thousands of members of both gangs have fought and died for the crown of the most powerful gang in Central America, profiting from crimes such as sex and drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, extortion and kidnapping.
In a 2015 extortion case, a man who owned a bus refused to pay the MS-13 gang his $1 fee. Three weeks later he was cornered by two young gang members, thrown to the ground and shot four times – twice in the head.
His son said his father was killed over $21.
Another transportation company boss told the New York Times in 2016 that 26 of his employees had been killed by the gangs since 2004 because they refused to pay.
Each gang has powerful alliances with MS-13 allied with the Mexican Mafia and the Sinaloa Cartel. Calle 18, meanwhile, counts the Triads among its allies.
Both gangs are known for their brutality and strictly defined “moral codes”. Potential members endure gruesome initiations, while violating the codes can result in lengthy beatings and even executions.
Its members wreak merciless vengeance, often killing not only enemy gangsters but their entire families – and anyone in the immediate vicinity. Buses full of passengers have been slaughtered in such attacks simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This can lead to a spiral of revenge killings as more members seek revenge.
Calle 18 earned the name “Children’s Army” by recruiting elementary and middle school children. Older members often allow underage acts – including killing – to keep their own hands clean.
In response, the members of MS-13 have shown no restraint when it comes to killing children they suspect work for their bitter rivals.
So far, several governments have struggled to deal with the violence that is spreading across El Salvador. In 2015, the daily homicide rate was 18.2 and it regularly tops charts that rank nations by their number of homicides per 100,000 people.
President Nayib Bukele claims the mega prison is the solution. Last year he declared a state of emergency which, among other things, suspended the right to legal counsel and extended the time an arrested person could be held without charge.