Without visits, with steel and confined cotres: this live gang members in Megacárcel de El Salvador

Confined in their cells only 30 minutes a day, No visits, forced to sleep in stainless steel cates without mattresses: This is life in the greatest prison of Latin America. Built to house the gang members More dangerous of El Salvador, the conditions in the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) of maximum security are criticized by human rights groups such as Inhuman.

However, the president of the United States, Donald Trump has praised the harsh tactics of his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, as an “example” and is considering designating El Salvador as a “third safe country” to deport undocumented immigrants, According to US media reports.

The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will visit the country on his first trip to Central America From the end of this week.

The extensive Cecot, on the edge of a jungle about 75 kilometers (47 miles) southeast of the San Salvador capital, is the central piece of the war of Get up against street gangs.

Some 15,000 members of the MS-13 and the rival gangs neighborhood are arrested in the installation, built almost two years ago and with even 40.000 personas.

They were arrested within the framework of the state of exception imposed by Bukele after an increase in gang violence in 2022.

Bukele’s offensive against gangs has been praised by many Salvadorans for leading to a drastic fall in the rate of murders, But human rights groups criticize abuse in prisons, saying that inmates are forced to confess and are denied contact with their families and lawyers.

CECOT inmates leave their cells only when they have judicial audiences by videoconference from a prison room or to exercise half an hour A day in a large hall.

AFP

They shower with water from a Great container inside their cells and collect water from a large plastic barrel to drink.

Your basic diet are beans or pasta, and the government expressly prohibits the carne.

Around 1,000 prison officials, 600 soldiers and 250 riot police guard the facilities where members of the MS-13 and the 18th neighborhood share cells, despite being Mortal enemies. They are monitored 24 hours a day by CCTV cameras and guards.

The AFP visited the prison last Monday along with other international media. During the tour, the director of the prison, BELARMINO GARCÍA, He referred to inmates as “Psychopaths which will be difficult to rehabilitate “and added:” That’s why they are here, in a prison of maximum security from which they will never come out. “

Marvin Recinos/AFP

Garcia ordered the inmates of a cell to remove the shirts to reveal tattooed bodies with intricate images of women, tombstones, skulls and crosses, as well as badges of gangs.

“There is no way out”: Prison in El Salvador prison

The MS-13 and Barrio 18 have terrified El Salvador since the late 1990s in their fight for drug trafficking and extortion. They also have a presence in Guatemala and Honduras.

In a small room next to the cells, observed by a group of police officers, a 41 -year -old man nicknamed “Sayco” (which is pronounced “psycho”) told AFP that he regretted his violent past.

“We are in a maximum security prison where we know there is no way out,” he said.

Marvin Medrano, who turns a 100 -year sentence for two murders, lifted his shirt to show the AFP the initials “ms” of Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, tattooed in its torso.

AFP

Medrano was born in El Salvador but spent part of his childhood in the United States, where he joined a gang At 12 years.

He returned to his homeland In 2001 to escape charges of Murder attempt and founded an MS-13 cell in the port city of Freedom, in the southwest of the country.

He regretted what he called his “bad decisions” and said he expected his son, whose age did not specify, take a different path in life.

“I have lost to my family, We have lost everything in prison, “Medrano told visiting journalists.

More than 80,000 Salvadorans have been arrested since Bukele declared the state of emergency.

In November, the president acknowledged that among the detainees there were 8,000 innocent people, They were already released.