[imagesource: YouTube / Reuters]

On Friday, El Salvador’s government moved thousands of suspected gang members to its new mega-prison.

The government released footage and pictures of the gang crackdown, revealing President Nayib Bukele’s self-declared war on crime.

“This will be their new home, where they won’t be able to do any more harm to the population,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.

The 2 000 accused gang members were moved to the 40 000-person-capacity prisons, considered to be the largest in the Americas, under a state of emergency following a spike in murders and other violent crimes.

Remarkable images show the first massive group of inmates, all with buzz cuts, and tattoos, barefoot in white boxers and shackles around their ankles:

The prisoners were made to shuffle into the facility, sit on the floor with their hands behind their shaven heads, stacked closely together, before being taken to their cells, notes BBC:

The mega-prison – in Tecoluca, 74 kilometers (46 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador – comprises eight buildings. Each has 32 cells of about 100 square meters (1,075 square feet) to hold “more than 100” prisoners, the government says.

The cells only have two sinks and two toilets each.

President Bukele declared a “war on gangs” last March, passing several emergency measures, many of which are controversial.

All pictures from “Reuters”

The first group of 2,000 suspected gang members in El Salvador have been moved to a huge new prison, the centrepiece of President Nayib Bukele’s self-declared war on crime.

Now the safest country in South America. pic.twitter.com/Qd2jMgKZjB

— Drug test all elected politicians. (@CraiginWales) February 25, 2023

As Reuters reports, arrests can be made without a warrant, private communications are accessible by the government, and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer.

Hoy en la madrugada, en un solo operativo, trasladamos a los primeros 2,000 pandilleros al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).

Esta será su nueva casa, donde vivirán por décadas, mezclados, sin poder hacerle más daño a la población.

Seguimos…#GuerraContraPandillas pic.twitter.com/9VvsUBvoHC

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 24, 2023

That tweet translated:

Today at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).

This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, mixed up, unable to do any more harm to the population.

We continue…

What are your thoughts on the new prison for MS13 gangs in El Salvador? Wildest shit I’ve seen. Should individuals who have caused such harm and terrorized entire communities be subject to a different kind of treatment? pic.twitter.com/LhePkjIfeg

— YourSolGuy ➕ (@YourSOLGuy) February 26, 2023

Nonetheless, Salvadorans have been mostly supportive of Bukele’s anti-gang push as more than 64 000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime drive:

Authorities have said criminal gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio-18 number tens of thousands and are responsible for homicides, extortion and drug-trafficking. The aim of the mass arrests is to make the gangs “disappear altogether”, the government says.

The BBC has more of Reuters’ shocking images showing the extent of the operation over here.

[source:bbc]