These harrowing images lay bare the brutal reality of life inside El Salvador’s “hell on Earth” prisons, where US President Donald Trump plans to deport America’s most violent offenders. The overcrowded cells are packed with inmates serving sentences that range from 60 to over 1,000 years at the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), the country’s newest prison facility.
Built just two years ago, CECOT has a staggering capacity for 40,000 prisoners, nearly half the total number of inmates in the UK. It is now home to thousands of the most dangerous gang members, and since its opening, it’s believed that more than 200 detainees have perished within its walls.
For almost the entire day, the men at CECOT are forced to perch on bare metal bunks, piled up four levels high, reminiscent of shelving in a DIY store. They must communicate in hushed tones and are fed a monotonous diet of rice and beans, pasta, and a boiled egg.
Their water intake is strictly controlled by guards who distribute it, and they share a common toilet. Shackled and subdued, they are only allowed out of their cramped confines for very limited reasons.
David Jones has the distinction of being the first UK journalist to enter CECOT, and he shared his haunting first hand account with Mail Online. He described: “Having visited the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and the Robben Island prison where Nelson Mandela was held, the system at CECOT certainly seems harsher. Terrorists held in ‘Gitmo’ are at least afforded some privileges and can undergo rehabilitation programs”, reports the Mirror.
“They have access to books and writing materials, can interact with one another, exercise in the fresh air, communicate with family members, and look forward to occasional visits. In CECOT none of those things are permitted. The sole aim is subjugation.
“They are evacuated when the guards charge into the module brandishing machine guns to stage a ‘forced intervention’ and search their bunks. While this clean sweep takes place they must crouch on the floor in perfect rows, with their legs wrapped tightly around the man in front of them and their head pressed against his bare back, forming a human jigsaw puzzle. Anyone who spoils the pattern by fidgeting receives a sharp baton jab to the ribs.
“Shut away in this void, in a subtropical volcanic valley two hours from the capital, San Salvador, with no wifi or mobile signals, these men have effectively ceased to exist. They are the living dead.”
In 2015, El Salvador was known as the world’s murder capital, with a staggering 106 killings for every 100,000 of its six million population: a rate more than 100 times higher than Britain’s. However, El Salvador has now turned things around and is projected to have one of the lowest murder rates this year, with less than one per 100,000.
Prisons like CECOT are said to be serving their purpose. Yet, the decision by Mr Trump to send criminals of all nationalities to these jails has sparked debate.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.”
The US leader believes this move will make both countries “stronger, safer, and more prosperous”, but tiny El Salvador, located on the Pacific coast, has a population of just six million – a minuscule fraction of the approximate 334 million living in the US.
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