How is the inside of the new prison in El Salvador, the largest in America?

The mega-prison in El Salvador, considered “the largest in the Americas,” is characterized by a high level of security and promises severe treatment for 40,000 gang members detained in the framework of a “war” that President Nayib Bukele declared to them.

Built in a rural valley a short distance from the imposing Chichontepec volcano, in Tecoluca, some 74 km southeast of San Salvador, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) stands out for its rigorous entry controls.

The prison was built to detain part of the 62,975 gang members detained under an emergency regime that was decreed by Congress at the request of Bukele, in response to an escalation of violence that claimed the lives of 87 people between the 25th and 27th of Last March.

In order to build the prison, the State bought 166 hectares, 23 of which were used to build eight pavilions that are located within a perimeter surrounded by a concrete wall 11 meters high and 2.1 kilometers long, protected by electrified barbed wire.

To enter the prison, both inmates and security and administrative personnel have to reach registration areas before going through three fortified gates controlled by security guards.

Each gang member who arrives, in addition to going through a body scanner, must register in an entrance area where they will take pictures.

The authorities have not informed when the transfer of gang members to the mega-prison will begin.

To give the prison autonomy, the Salvadoran Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, declared that two wells were drilled, a 600 cubic meter water supply plant was installed, four cisterns, and eight electric power substations were built.

In order to guarantee electricity, the prison also has fuel-based emergency plants.

A sewage plant was also built.

In front of the cell blocks, there is a control room to operate the water and electricity systems so that inmates do not have the ability to “manipulate” both services, explained the CECOT director, who prefers to remain anonymous.

The pavilions have a curved roof that guarantees natural ventilation for the prisoners.

In the prison, which was built in a record time of seven months, 3,000 people worked and was supervised by a Mexican company.

Rigor in cells

Each pavilion has a construction area of ​​6,000 square meters, and in each of its 32 cells equipped with steel bars, “more than one hundred” gang members will be housed, Minister Rodríguez explained.

The inmates have in each cell – about 100 square meters – two sinks with running water for personal hygiene, and two toilets.

Each cell also has iron sheet cabins without mattresses to sleep 80 people.

In addition, in each pavilion there are dark and windowless “punishment cells” that will be used with gang members for bad conduct.

“No patios (…) recreation areas or conjugal spaces have been built”, so the gang members will only leave the cell when they go to a room for their virtual judicial process.

In this new prison, the members of the gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18, born in the streets of the American city of Los Angeles in the early 1980s, will be housed. The main activities of these groups consist of extortion of individuals and businesses , hit men and the sale of drugs.

Source: AFP