 The crown jewel of El Salvador’s aggressive anti-crime strategy — a mega-prison where visitation, recreation and education are not allowed — became the latest tool in President Trump’s crackdown on immigration, when hundreds of immigrants facing deportation were transferred there. The arrival of the immigrants, alleged to be members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, took place under an agreement for which the Trump administration will pay the government of President Nayib Bukele $6 million for one year of services. Bukele has made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime, reports the Los Angeles Times. In 2023, he opened the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where the immigrants were sent over the weekend even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring their deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members.
Bukele ordered the mega-prison built as he began his campaign against El Salvador’s gangs in March 2022. It opened a year later in the town of Tecoluca, 45 miles east of the capital. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners. CECOT prisoners do not receive visits and are never allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational programs to prepare them to return to society after their sentences. Occasionally, prisoners who have gained a level of trust from prison officials give motivational talks. Prisoners sit in rows in the corridor outside their cells for the talks or are led through exercise regimens under the supervision of guards. Bukele’s justice minister has said that those held at CECOT would never return to their communities. The prison’s dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards. The human rights organization Cristosal reported that in March 2024 El Salvador had 110,000 people behind bars, including those sentenced to prison and those still awaiting trial. That’s more than double the 36,000 inmates that the government reported in April 2021, a year before Bukele ramped up his fight against crime. Cristosal and other advocates have accused authorities of human rights violations. Cristosal says that at least 261 people had died in El Salvador’s prisons during the gang crackdown.