Inside El Salvador’s Mega-Prison: Latin America’s Largest Facility

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Marvin Medrano, ‘Sayco’, has “MS” for Mara Salvatrucha tattooed on his torso… forever. He’s serving 100 years in the mega-prison for gang members built two years ago in El Salvador by Nayib Bukele’s government, aware he’ll never leave. In a small room next to the cells, under police surveillance, Medrano, 41, tells journalists he regrets his violent past.

“We’re in a maximum-security prison where we know there’s no way out for us,” says ‘Sayco’, as he’s known in MS-13, sentenced for two murders. As a symbol of his “war” against gangs, Bukele inaugurated the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) on January 31, 2023, considered Latin America’s largest prison, in an uninhabited area outside Tecoluca, 75 km southeast of San Salvador.

The prison, surrounded by huge concrete walls, is designed for 40,000 inmates but currently holds about 15,000 from MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs, said director Belarmino García. They were detained under Bukele’s state of emergency following 87 murders between March 25-27, 2022.

Over 83,000 people have been detained – 8,000 released as innocent, Bukele admits – under this regime criticized by human rights organizations for allowing arrests without warrants and limiting due process rights.

Crazy Criminal

Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 terrorized El Salvador since the late 1990s and still do in Guatemala and Honduras. Medrano recalls joining gangs in the United States at age 11-12. His back bears “CCS” (Crazy Criminals Salvatruchos) tattoos. He was three when family took him to the U.S., living there until 2001 before returning home. “I fled because I tried to take someone’s life there,” he confesses.

After returning to El Salvador, ‘Sayco’ settled in Puerto La Libertad (southwest), forming an MS-13 cell. Today, Medrano regrets his “bad decisions,” especially thinking of his son, whose age he didn’t specify, saying he doesn’t want him following the same path. At CECOT, gang members are monitored 24/7 by cameras and guards, under strict confinement without family visits.

“One has suffered, I’ve lost my family, what haven’t we lost in prison!” says ‘Sayco’.

No Chance of Rehabilitation

CECOT occupies 166 hectares, with eight pavilions built on 23 hectares, each containing 32 cells with thick steel bars. About 1,000 prison officers, 600 soldiers, and 250 riot police guard the facility. “These subjects are psychopaths who are very difficult to rehabilitate, that’s why they’re here, in a maximum-security prison they’ll never leave,” García tells journalists during a prison tour.

In their cells, inmates wear white shirts and shorts, with MS-13 and Barrio 18 members – mortal enemies – mixed together. García ordered inmates in one cell to remove their shirts, revealing bodies tattooed with intricate images of women, tombstones, skulls, and crosses.

Inmates leave cells only for virtual court hearings in one of six designated rooms, or for 30 minutes daily exercise in a large corridor within the pavilions. They shower using water from a large sink in their cells and drink from a large plastic barrel.

They sleep on stainless steel cots without mattresses, covered by thin white sheets. Meals consist mainly of beans or pasta, never meat by government order. “Everything we once did was in vain, and unfortunately the conditions we’re in…. as a gang, we never imagined this, but it’s reality,” concludes ‘Sayco’.

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