Terrorism Confinement Center

The Terrorism Confinement Center (Spanish: Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, abbreviated CECOT) is a maximum security prison located in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador. The prison was built from July 2022 to January 2023 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown; it opened in January 2023 and received its first 2,000 prisoners in February 2023. As of March 2023, the prison has a population of over 4,000 inmates. It has been described as a mega prison and as one of the largest prisons in the world.

Terrorism Confinement Center
LocationTecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador
Coordinates13°31′58.76″N 88°48′14.40″W
StatusOperational
Security classMaximum security
Capacity40,000
Population4,000+ (as of 15 March 2023)
Opened31 January 2023 (2023-01-31)
Managed byMinistry of Justice and Public Security

History

In March 2022, the Salvadoran government began a large-scale crackdown against criminal gangs, which the government considers to be terrorist organizations.[1][2] Due to the large number of alleged gang members being arrested by the country's security forces, the government announced in July 2022 that a new prison with a capacity of 40,000 would be built to house those who were arrested,[3] as well as relieve El Salvador's overcrowded prisons, such as the Zacatecoluca prison.[4] The contract to build the prison was awarded to two Salvadoran firms, OMNI and DISA, and the Mexican firm Contratista General de América Latina S.A. de C.V.[5] At the time of its opening, over 62,000 people had been arrested during the crackdown.[6]

External videos
video icon President Nayib Bukele touring the newly-built prison.
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The prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT),[7] was opened by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in January 2023.[4] Bukele has tweeted two videos of prisoner transfers since the prison's opening.

List of major prisoner transfers
Date No. transferred Total population External video Ref.
24 February 2023 2,000+ 2,000+ External video [8]
15 March 2023 2,000+ 4,000+ External video [9]

Prison facility

The Terrorism Confinement Center covers 410 acres (170 ha), while the eight cell blocks themselves cover around the same area as six football pitches.[10] It has a maximum capacity of 40,000—double the total population of the Marmara Penitentiaries Campus in Istanbul, Turkey—which would make it the largest in the world by total capacity.[11] Although CECOT has a higher capacity than the Marmara prison, it is much smaller, as the Marmara prison covers 300 acres (120 ha).[10] CECOT has been described as a "mega prison",[7] a "super prison",[4] and the "largest prison in Latin America".[12]

Each cell contains only two toilets, two sinks, and 80 bunks with no mattresses for the more than 100 inmates assigned per cell.[9][13] According to Financial Times, on average, each prisoner is given 0.6 square meters (6.5 sq ft) of space. There are factories for the prisoners to produce fabric.[10]

The prison is secured by 1,000 guards, 600 soldiers, and 250 police officers; there are 40 inmates per guard.[14] Its nineteen guard towers—seven on the perimeter and twelve on the interior—are staffed by seven soldiers each.[10]

Reactions

Bukele has described the Terrorism Confinement Center as the "the most criticized prison in the world".[15]

The prison's construction was criticized by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and Vamos (V) political parties, stating that constructing universities and hospitals should take priority over constructing prisons.[7] Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the prison for having such a high capacity, stating that the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners suggest a prison should not exceed a population higher than 500.[4] Amnesty International criticized the government, stating that the prison doesn't "address the root causes of violence" and that it only allows the government to continue its "policy of mass incarceration".[16]

After the prison accepted its first 2,000 inmates, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and some human rights experts claimed that the prison resembled a concentration camp.[17][18] According to Martin Horn, a former New York City prison administrator, "forty thousand [prisoners] is too many to manage in one place, period. Under any circumstances". According to Gustavo Fondevila, a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), "what we're going to have is a gigantic prison that will become a small city of crime [...] for me, it's a political campaign project, the typical campaign project of pure, hard penal populism".[10]

According to a poll conduced by CIESCA in March 2023, 96.4 percent of respondents supports the construction of CECOT, while 3.6 percent opposed it.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Qué es un Régimen de Excepción – El Salvador" [What is the Regime of Exception – El Salvador]. Alianza Americas (in Spanish). 27 April 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. Delcid, Merlid (25 August 2015). "El Salvador Declara como Grupos Terroristas a las Pandillas" [E Salvador Declares Gangs as Terrorist Groups]. CNN en Español (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  3. Agren, David (23 August 2022). Written at Mexico City. "El Salvador Builds 40,000-Inmate Mega-Prison in "War Against Gangs"". Financial Times. London. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  4. Rodríguez, Milton (2 February 2022). "Cristosal: Bukele le Apuesta a la Megacárcel y no a la Prevención del Delito" [Cristosal: Bukele Bets on the Mega Prison and not on Crime Prevention]. El Salvador.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  5. Rodríguez, Milton (7 February 2023). "Gobierno Oculta el Costo y los Contratos de Construcción del Megapenal de Tecoluca" [Government Hides the Cost and Construction Contracts of the Tecoluca Mega Penalty]. El Salvador.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  6. Renteria, Nelson; Kinosian, Sarah (1 February 2023). Maler, Sandra (ed.). "El Salvador Opens 40,000-Person Prison as Arrests Soar in Gang Crackdown". Reuters. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  7. Peñate, Susana (1 February 2023). "FMLN y Vamos Critican Prioridades de Gobierno por Construcción de "Megapenal"" [FMLN and Vamos Criticize the Government's Priorities for Construction the "Mega-Prison"]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  8. Quiej, Bessy (24 February 2023). "Videos | Presidente Nayib Bukele Confirma Envío de 2 Mil Pandilleros al CECOT" [Videos | President Nayib Bukele Confirms More than 2 Thousand Prisoners in CECOT]. La Página. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  9. "Second Group Of Prisoners Transferred To El Salvador Mega-Jail". Barron's. 15 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  10. Murray, Christine; Smith, Alan (6 March 2023). "Inside El Salvador's Mega Prison: The Jail Giving Inmates Less Space than Livestock". Financial Times. Mexico City and London. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  11. Thurston, Joshua (1 February 2023). "El Salvador's President Orders 'World's Largest Jail' to be Finished in 60 Days". The Times. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  12. "El Salvador Inaugura Cárcel con Capacidad para 40 Mil Pandilleros, 'la Más Grande de Latinoamérica'" [El Salvador Inaugurates a Prison with the Capacity for 40 Thousand Gang Members, "the Largest in Latin America"]. El Financiero (in Spanish). 1 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  13. "Thousands of Tattooed Inmates Pictured in El Salvador Mega-Prison". BBC. 25 February 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  14. Bernal, David (7 March 2023). "Cada Reo en Megapenal de El Salvador Contará con 0.6 Metros Cuadrados de Espacio, a su Máxima Capacidad" [Each Inmate in El Salvador's Mega Penalty Will Have 0.6 Square Meters of Space, at its Maximum Capacity]. La Prensa Gráfica (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  15. Bukele, Nayib [@nayibbukele] (15 March 2023). "Este día, en un nuevo operativo, trasladamos al segundo grupo de 2,000 pandilleros al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). Con esto, ya son 4,000 pandilleros los que habitan la cárcel más criticada del mundo" [Today, in a new operative, we transferred the second group of 2,000 gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), With this, there are now 4,000 gang members who inhabit the most criticized prison in the world.] (Tweet) (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via Twitter.
  16. Bernal, Daniel (3 February 2023). "Amnistía Internacional Expresa Preocupación por Megapenal de El Salvador" [Amnesty International Expresses Preoccupation with El Salvador's Mega Prison]. La Prensa Gráfica (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  17. "Colombia's Petro: Salvadoran Prison for Gang Members is 'Concentration Camp'". La Prensa Latina. Bogota, Colombia. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  18. Rodríguez, Milton (25 February 2023). "Penal de Tecoluca Parece Campo de Concentración, Dicen Expertos en Derechos Humanos" [Tecoluca Prison Resembles a Concentration Camp, Says Human Rights Experts]. El Salvador.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  19. CIESCA CENTROAMERICA [@CIESCA_OFICIAL] (31 March 2023). "El 96.4% de la población salvadoreña aprueba la decisión del presidente @nayibbukele En la construcción de #CECOT" [96.4% of the Salvadoran population approves the president @nayibbukele's decision in the construction of #CECOT] (Tweet) (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 March 2023 – via Twitter.

Further reading
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