What you should know about Cecot, El Salvador’s mega-prison for gang members: NPR

In this photo, which was presented by El Salvador’s press release, the prison attendants deported from the United States, who are supposedly Venezuelan gang members, to Terrorism limitation center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025.

AP/EL Salvador PRESISTIAL PRESS Office

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AP/EL Salvador PRESISTIAL PRESS Office

San Salvador, El Salvador-Das KronJuwel of El Salvador’s aggressive strategy against crime-one mega, in which visitor, relaxation and education are not allowed are the latest instrument by the American President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration on Sunday when hundreds of immigrants were confronted there.

The arrival of the immigrants, who were claimed by the United States as members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, occurred as part of an agreement for which the Trump government will pay President Nayib Bukele’s government 6 million US dollars for one year.

Bukele has made the strict, hard prisons of the Central American country a trademark of his struggle against the crime. In 2023, he opened the terrorism boundary center or Cecot, in which the immigrants were sent at the weekend, even when a federal judge made a command that temporarily expelled their deportations as part of a declaration of war from the 18th century against the members of the Venezolan gangs.

What is the cecot?

Bukele ordered the mega prison when he started his campaign against El Salvador’s gangs in March 2022. It was opened a year later in the city of Tecoluca, about 72 kilometers east of the capital.

The facility has eight extensive pavilions and can absorb up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.

Cecot prisoners do not visit visits and must never be allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational programs to prepare them for returning to society after its punishments.

Occasionally prisoners who have gained a level of trust from prison officers give motivational talks. Prisoners sit in rows in the corridor outside of their cells for the conversations or are guided under the supervision of guards by training regimes.

Bukele’s Minister of Justice said that the Minister of Justice held in Cecot would never return to their communities.

The dining rooms of the prison, the fracture rooms, the gym and the board games are intended for guards.

How many prisoners do El Salvador hold?

The government does not update the number regularly, but the human rights organization Cristosal reported that El Salvador had 110,000 people behind bars in March 2024, including those who were convicted of prisons and who were still waiting for legal proceedings. This is more than twice the 36,000 inmates that the government increased in April 2021 a year before Bukele increased its fight against crime.

Cristosal and other supporters have accused authorities of human rights violations.

Cristosal reported last year that at least 261 people in El Salvador’s prisons died while the gangs were done. The group and others have given cases of abuse, torture and a lack of medical help.

In smooth -produced videos, the CECOT prisoner government showed in Boxer shorts in the common areas and made it almost sit on each other. Cells are missing enough berths for everyone.

Why were immigrants sent to Cecot?

According to Trump’s explanation of the extraterrestrial enemy law, the migrants were deported from 1798, which was only used three times in US history.

The law demands that a president declared that the United States is in the war, and he gives him extraordinary powers to capture or remove foreigners who would otherwise have protection after immigration or criminal law. Trump claimed that the Tren de Aragua gang had entered the USA to appointed the war authority.

Tren de Aragua came from a famous lawless prison in Venezuela and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the vast majority of whom searched for better living conditions after the economy of her nation had come to the decade in the past decade.

The Trump administration did not identify the deported migrants, provided that they are actually members of Tren de Aragua or that they have committed crimes in the USA

Video, which was published by El Salvador’s government on Sunday, showed men who left planes to an airport package, which was held in turmoil by civil servants. The men who had tied up their hands and the ankles tried to go as the officers push their heads down to bend them in the waist.

The video also showed that the men were transported to Cecot in large bus traffic, which was guarded by police and military vehicles and at least one helicopter. The men were kneeling on the floor when their heads were shaved before they were placed in the purely white uniform of the prison throat length, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs and in cells.