Nayeb Bugele from the Counterterrorism Center for El Salvador and Latin America speaks

The prison that El Salvador President Nayeb Bukele presented through his social networks is one of the most impressive centers in the world. It is a detention center where the country’s gang members are jailed. It has a large complex guarded by over 600 guards and has its own water and electricity plant. It is large enough to house more than 40,000 prisoners.

It is far from any city for the total isolation of prisoners from society. The construction area is seven times the size of the country’s largest stadium.

As per the announcement of the President, it will be the largest prison in the entire continent. The prison center can be the most dangerous of all gangs for high commanding officers such as gunmen and other criminals of criminal structures.

Nayib Bukhele walked through it step by step with the leaders of the guard in front to guard it. “Before, the inmates had brothels and an arcade,” the president said on the tour.

That guided tour and broadcast on television and the president’s social networks showed the scale of the complex. For example, the concrete walls that prevent prisoners from escaping are 11 meters high. “Not even a single car that crashes into it will break it. It is the first world prison to protect us from criminals”. A prison warden promised. The prison has seven fences, including a virtual one for surveillance.

Watchtowers, meanwhile, are located in each of the prison rings. “It’s impossible for a prisoner to get out,” says the officer showing the prison. The jail functions with four outer rings.

The technology to break into the prison is modern with very powerful scanners. “You can see the lungs,” warns the president. The guard explains that this ensures that no one gets anything inside their bodies. “Previous governments have handed over prisons to these terrorist groups,” warns the person who gave the tour.

There is also an armory area, which gives the guards maximum protection against any disturbances that may arise. Preventive intelligence and counter-intelligence sessions are also contemplated to ensure that no order or communication abroad leaves the jail. The prison is so hermetic that inmates don’t even go outside for court hearings, but can join from there.

The President showed us what the eating areas, bathrooms and facilities for the guards would look like. “Earlier, instead of punishing the bad, they punished the good and rewarded the criminals,” Bukele said, revealing that government forces working at the prison have a dignified life.

The number of war against gangs

Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villadoro said on Monday that 63,000 suspected gang members have been detained in El Salvador as part of a “war” against them launched by President Nayeb Bukele 10 months ago.

“There are currently more than 62,975 terrorists (gang members) detained,” Villatoro told state television Channel 10. The mass arrests, criticized by human rights groups, are protected by an emergency rule that allows arrests without warrants approved by Congress at Bugel’s request in response to a surge in killings that left 87 people dead between March 25 and 27. .

A few days ago, Buchel announced that some 3,000 “innocents” detained under emergency rule had been released. Before March 2022, 16,000 people were incarcerated in El Salvador’s prisons, belonging to rival gangs: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, its two factions, the Surenos and the Revolucionarios.

Police have seized 2,218 guns, 2,799 vehicles, 15,038 cellphones and $1.6 million in cash in 10 months of fighting gangs.

*With information from AFP.