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A mega-prison in El Salvador has opened its doors to its first 2,000 inmates of suspected gang members, who upon arrival discover that there are not enough beds for everyone and no mattresses at all.
The facility is designed to house 40,000 suspected mobsters and the Central American country’s security minister has warned inmates “you will never leave here.”
The transfer to the high-tech prison follows President Nayib Bukele’s ‘war’ on crime.
Bukele tweeted that ‘at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT)’, which he claims is the largest mega-prison in America.
Bukele added: “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed up, without being able to do more harm to the population.”
Riot police officers monitor the arrival of inmates belonging to the gangs MS-13 and 18 to the new prison ‘Terrorist Confinement Center’
The prisoners were forced to run while leaning forward with their hands cuffed behind their backs as they entered the prison.
The inmates are members of more than a dozen gangs and were handcuffed and stripped to their underpants.
They were loaded onto buses, their hands and feet shackled, to be taken to the new prison in a convoy that included helicopters.
The president posted a video showing barefoot tattooed men wearing only white briefs, bent over with their hands behind their shaved heads.
They were piled close together, each sitting with their legs on either side of the man in front of them as armed guards in ski masks looked on.
At the new facility, the men were similarly stacked before being herded in large groups to their cells, where they were left sitting on the floor in front of stacked metal beds with no visible mattresses.
“We are eliminating this cancer from society,” Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said on Twitter.
“Know that you will never leave CECOT, you will pay for what you are… cowardly terrorists,” he added.
Built by order of Bukele after he declared “war” against the gangs last March, the Tecoluca prison, 74 kilometers (46 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador, consists of eight reinforced concrete buildings.
Each one has 32 cells of about 100 square meters (1,075 square feet), designed to house “more than 100” inmates, according to Public Works Minister Romeo Rodríguez.
Each cell has only two sinks and two toilets.
All of the men had their hair cropped, revealing a wide variety of tattoos on their heads.
The Terrorism Confinement Center, which will be guarded by more than 800 soldiers and police, more than doubles El Salvador’s incarceration capacity and will help alleviate some of the overcrowding in the country’s prison system.
The first 2,000 inmates in El Salvador were transferred to a new prison called the ‘Terrorist Confinement Center’
A prison guard stands next to a group of six inmates who are handcuffed, neatly lined up, and facing a wall.
The first 2,000 gang members were transferred from the Izalco prison to the ‘largest in America’ mega-prison, equipped with high-tech surveillance
Most of the prisoners are heavily tattooed, and many have their entire bodies covered in designs.
The prison is equipped with dining rooms, exercise rooms and ping-pong tables, they are for the exclusive use of the guards.
Gang members wait to be taken to their cells after 2,000 gang members were transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center
There are only 80 metal bunk beds for every 100 prisoners, and human rights groups and observers have criticized the construction as a violation of prison regulations.
“There will be no mattresses in the cells,” the prison director, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, told reporters when the project was unveiled.
Although the prison is equipped with mess halls, exercise rooms, and ping-pong tables, they are for the exclusive use of the guards.
Prisoners will be released from the cell only for legal hearings via videoconference, or to be punished in a windowless, lightless isolation cell.
Some 63,000 suspected gang members have been detained since Bukele declared a state of emergency months ago, allowing warrantless arrests in the violence-plagued country.
There are only 80 metal bunk beds for every 100 prisoners, and human rights groups and observers have criticized the construction as a violation of prison regulations.
An officer monitors video monitors at the Terrorism Containment Center on Thursday.
The arrival of inmates belonging to the gangs MS-13 and 18 to the new prison ‘Terrorist Confinement Center’
“There will be no mattresses in the cells,” the prison director, who was wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, told reporters when the project was unveiled.
Police register arrival of inmates belonging to the gangs MS-13 and 18
Some 63,000 suspected gang members have been detained since Bukele declared a state of emergency months ago.