‘Never return’: El Salvador locks up gang-bangers in new mega-prison with promise of no release

El Salvador continues to fill its mega-prisons, adding 2,000 inmates as the government vows they will “never return” to the streets.

Justice and Peace Minister Gustavo Vilatoro said of the transportation plans, “They are not going to go back to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador.”

The government has deported nearly 65,000 suspected gang members since Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s emergency powers were approved in March 2022, which also allowed it to approve and build the mega-prison.

There are 40,000 in the country’s “terrorism prison centres”.,man capacity and has already taken more than 4,000 prisoners as the government cracks down on a widespread gang problem. It is at 10% of its maximum capacity only a month after opening.

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Gang members 2,000 wait to be moved to their cells after being transferred to an anti-terrorism center, according to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, in this handout distributed to Reuters on March 15, 2023 are doing. (Secretaria de Princes de la Presidency/Handout via Reuters)

Another 3,500 arrested have been set free, while the remaining approximately 57,000 suspects await trial.

The government has widely publicized the prison, posting videos of inmate transfers and providing an impressive inside look at the facilities. The prison is one of the largest in Latin America, with 37 guard towers and eight cellblocks that would make it “impossible to escape”.

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Gang members 2,000 wait to be moved to their cells after being transferred to an anti-terrorism center, according to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, in this handout distributed to Reuters on March 15, 2023 are doing. (Secretaria de Princes de la Presidency/Handout via Reuters)

Bukele has asked for an extension of the emergency powers – known as the state of exception – that have allowed him to take such sweeping action over the past year. He pushed the new measure after three days of violence killed 87 people, which he blamed on the infamous MS-13 gang.

Congress must still approve an extension of the anti-gang measures, but legislators are expected to do so, as they have done a dozen times before.

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According to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, 2,000 gang members were transferred to an anti-terrorism center, according to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in this handout distributed to Reuters on March 15, 2023. (Secretaria de Princes de la Presidency/Handout via Reuters)

Under special powers, the right of association is suspended, and the police do not have to tell someone the reason for arrest, or inform them of their rights. Anyone who is arrested does not have the right to a lawyer and can be held without seeing a judge for up to 15 days instead of the previous 72 hours.

About 2% of the country’s adult population has ended up behind bars as a result of El Salvador’s operation.

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NGOs have counted several thousand human rights violations arrested and at least 80 deaths in custody during the state of exception. Rights activists say young men are often arrested based on their age or appearance or whether they live in a gang-dominated slum.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.