The notorious mega-prison which ended years of brutal gang rule in El Salvador and stripped thousands of the most violent criminals of of their rights has been operating for two years this week.
CECOT (Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism) is a maximum security jail built a year ago by the Salvadoran government to lock behind bars ‘high ranking’ members of the country’s most violent gangs.
Hidden away in the middle of nowhere, the massive prison complex, known as ‘the Alcatraz of Central America’, looms as the ultimate symbol of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s hardline crackdown on crime.
Dubbed a ‘black hole of human rights’ by critics, the controversial facility has drawn widespread condemnation for allegedly ignoring international prisoner rights.
Miguel Sarre, a former member of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, slammed the facility as a ‘concrete and steel pit.’
He also chillingly warned that the prison has effectively become a dumping ground for inmates, with no releases so far—amounting to what he called a ‘death penalty in disguise.’
Yet in a country plagued by violent gangs like Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the notorious factions of Barrio 18, Bukele’s heavy-handed approach has turned him into a national hero.
For many Salvadorans, the high-security prison isn’t a disgrace – it’s a symbol of safety and hope, driving the president’s soaring popularity and political dominance.
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison
Hundreds of members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held in the prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvado
The CECOT, the largest prison in Latin America and emblem of the war against gangs of the government of President Nayib Bukele, celebrates two years since it was inaugurated on February 1
CECOT director Belarmino García said last year that the facility, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates, ‘houses serial killers. These serial killers have lost all their rights.’
One inmate facing a staggering 1,500-year sentence for his alleged role in over 500 murders, kidnappings, and extortions has spent the last two years inside CECOT, where conditions are as relentless as the crimes he is accused of.
The lights inside the cells never go off – blazing a full 24 hours a day.
Prisoners are forced to sleep on bare metal slabs, with no mattresses to cushion them.
Hygiene is just as grim, with inmates washing themselves from a basin of water in cells crammed with over 40 men.
Even using the toilet offers no reprieve, as it is fully exposed to watchful military and police officers stationed just two meters away. The regime is merciless.
Gang members spend 23 and a half hours locked in their overcrowded cells, with just 30 minutes to stretch – chained in the middle of the hallway. No fresh air, no visits, and no escape from the punishing monotony of their incarceration.
For many, this is life without end – an existence designed to break even the most hardened criminals.
Within the cells, the temperature can reach a staggering 35C during the day, and there is no other source of ventilation.
Stunning images taken from within the complex therefore usually show inmates shirtless in white shorts as they attempt to keep cool.
Inmates are forced to wash themselves from a basin of water in cells crammed with over 40 men
Prisoners are forced to sleep on bare metal slabs, with no mattresses to cushion them
CECOT director Belarmino García said last year that the facility, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates, ‘houses serial killers. These serial killers have lost all their rights’
On March 27, 2022, after a blood-soaked day that saw over 60 homicides, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, declared a State of Exception, granting sweeping powers to police and the military.
The move allowed mass arrests of suspected gang members without court orders and stripped away rights such as freedom of assembly and communication privacy.
The result? A country once infamous as the most dangerous in the world has transformed into the second safest – surpassing even Switzerland, Iceland, and Luxembourg in citizens’ sense of safety, with 87 per cent feeling secure walking alone at night.
El Salvador’s streets now teem with military patrols, as soldiers and police officers work around the clock.
Far from resenting the heavy-handed presence, locals welcome it, viewing the militarised neighborhoods as a lifeline.
While human rights groups accuse Bukele of trampling international laws and due process, the majority of Salvadorans – an overwhelming 92 per cent – support his hardline approach.
They fear that without Bukele, gang members would escape their cells, regroup, and once again dominate the nation with extortion, murder, and terror.
‘This is a beacon of hope for the 660 million Latin Americans who, like us, were once suffocated by criminal organizations,’ says Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador’s Minister of Public Security and a key figure in Bukele’s cabinet.
Villatoro credits the success to a deep analysis of the country’s decades-long gang crisis and a determination to crush the underworld’s grip.
Since the State of Exception began, over 84,000 people have been arrested.
More than 13,000 of them are locked up in CECOT, where the crackdown shows no signs of slowing.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .