Petro calls Bukele prison a concentration camp

Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed to his colleague from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, “international forum” to compare the two countries’ experiences in reducing homicides, after a Central American ruler wished the Andean nation to reduce those rates.

“Well Nayib, we went from 90 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993 in Bogota to 13 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022. We didn’t build prisons but universities. It’s good to compare experiences. I suggest an international forum,” said Petro on Twitter.

Petro assured in the government act that on the networks you can see “terrible photos – they can’t get to other countries – of the concentration camp in El Salvador, full of young people, thousands and thousands, imprisoned that make you shudder.”

This refers to Bukele’s government transferred to the Center for the Suppression of Terrorism (CECOT)a maximum security prison for 40,000 inmates, up to 2,000 alleged gang members.

In this regard, the Salvadoran president told Petro that “results weigh more than rhetoric.”

“I want Colombia to really succeed in reducing murder rates like we Salvadorans have. God bless you,” Bukele posted on Twitter.

Bukele also said that from more than 100 murders per 100,000 residents, El Salvador is now in the single digits. And the reduction was rapid, “because the dead do not recover”.

In the pictures he posted The Salvadoran government has been watching the prisoners for the past few daysshirtless, with characteristic gang tattoos.

“I think there are people who definitely like it, seeing young people in prisons and believing that it’s safety and the popularity is definitely growing,” Petro said.

The Colombian president added that “the president of El Salvador feels proud because he was able to reduce the murder rate based on what he says is the subjugation of gangs that are, in my opinion, horrific today in these prisons.”