El Salvador transferred 2,000 gang members to a new prison

The government of El Salvador moved this week to 2,000 gang members to a new prison that has a capacity for about 40,000 peopleas reported by President Nayib Bukele.

“This dawn, in one operation, we transferred the first 2,000 members of the gang to the Center for the Suppression of Terrorism (CECOT),” the president announced on his social networks.

He added: “This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, mixed together, without being able to do any more harm to the population.”

Despite the fact that the government did not inform about the transfers, dozens of relatives were mobilized to La Esperanza prison, known as Mariona, in San Salvador. According to EFE, about 150 people gathered at this place, and several buses left the area.

Bukele opened CECOT at the end of January, and the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, told the president that this “will become the largest prison in all of America” ​​and that “it will be impossible for a prisoner to leave” the complex, which has 23 hectares of built-up areas.

The prison’s construction came amid criticism from the opposition, which pointed to a lack of transparency, largely due to the passage of a law that allowed the ruling party-dominated legislature to bypass normal checks on state affairs.

At the beginning of February Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern about this new prison in El Salvadorand expressed “deep concern” considering that “the construction of this new prison could mean the continuation and escalation of these abuses.”

According to official data, more than 64,000 people accused by the government of being gang members have been detained under the emergency regime, approved last March after an escalation of killings, and more than 3,300 have been released.

Salvadoran humanitarian organizations and the Office for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) They received more than 7,900 complaints of wrongdoing, mostly due to arbitrary arrests.

The authorities attribute to this measure and the Territorial Control Plan a decrease in murders, which, according to official data, were 496 in 2022, 57% less than in 2021.