Some recent photos have revealed the horrific conditions inside a massive prison in El Salvador, built to house members of the country’s most violent gangs. Known as the Cecot (Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism), the massive facility in Tecoluca can house about 40,000 prisoners, roughly the size of two full Madison Square Gardens, states reports. The Salvadoran government released photos of scores of heavily tattooed, shirt-sleeved prisoners transferred to the maximum security prison. Prisoners face constant fear of being tortured or killed while held in small, artificially lit cells. Not a single inmate who has ever been admitted has ever been released. One photo shows men with clean-shaven heads crammed into a transport bus with their hands tied behind their backs and their heads bent forward.
Another image shows half-naked prisoners standing in a long line under the watchful eyes of heavily armed guards, with their heads bent forward, almost touching the prisoner in front of them.
Other images show guards counting prisoners as they squat on the floor in large rooms with their hands on their heads. According to a report, more than 2,000 gang members were recently transferred to the mega-prison from different prisons across El Salvador. Most of them belong to the country’s largest gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18.
This transfer is part of President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on drug trafficking gangs. Over the past two years, authorities have incarcerated more than 70,000 people to combat street crime.
In the prison, inmates are forced to eat rice, pasta or hard-boiled eggs with their hands because guards fear the utensils could be turned into weapons. Prisoners are only allowed to spend 30 minutes a day outside their cells. Because authorities fear they could injure each other with weights and dumbbells, they are only allowed to exercise with their body weight, reports further mention.
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