SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — El Salvador’s centerpiece in its stringent anti-crime efforts, a mega-prison devoid of visitation, recreation, or educational opportunities, was recently utilized in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement. Hundreds of immigrants facing deportation were moved to the facility on Sunday.
These immigrants, whom the U.S. claims are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, were transferred as part of an agreement where the Trump administration will pay President Nayib Bukele’s government $6 million for a year’s worth of services.
Bukele has prominently featured the country’s severe prisons as a key element in his crime-fighting strategy. In 2023, he inaugurated the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where the immigrants were sent. This occurred even as a federal judge temporarily blocked their deportations under an 18th-century wartime declaration aimed at Venezuelan gang members.
What is the CECOT?
Bukele commissioned the construction of the mega-prison at the start of his campaign against El Salvador’s gangs in March 2022. It opened a year later in Tecoluca, roughly 72 kilometers (45 miles) east of the capital.
The prison complex includes eight extensive buildings and can house up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell is designed to hold 65 to 70 prisoners.
Inmates at CECOT are not allowed visitors and never go outside. The prison lacks workshops or educational programs to help them reintegrate into society after serving their sentences.
Occasionally, inmates who have earned the trust of prison staff are allowed to give motivational speeches. Inmates are seated in rows in the corridor outside their cells for these talks, or they participate in exercise programs under the supervision of guards.
Bukele’s justice minister has stated that those incarcerated at CECOT will never be permitted to return to their communities.
The prison’s dining areas, recreation rooms, gym, and board games are reserved for the guards.
How many prisoners does El Salvador hold?
While the government doesn’t routinely update the figures, Cristosal, a human rights organization, reported that El Salvador held 110,000 individuals in its prisons as of March 2024, including both sentenced prisoners and those awaiting trial. This figure is more than double the 36,000 inmates reported by the government in April 2021, before Bukele intensified his crackdown on crime.
Cristosal and other advocacy groups have accused the authorities of human rights abuses.
Cristosal reported last year that at least 261 people died in El Salvador’s prisons during the crackdown on gangs. The group and others have pointed to instances of abuse, torture, and inadequate medical care.
The government has released highly produced videos showing CECOT prisoners in boxer shorts being marched into common areas and forced to sit closely together. The cells do not have enough beds for all inmates.
Why were immigrants sent to CECOT?
The migrants were deported based on Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that has been used only three times in U.S. history.
This law requires the president to declare that the U.S. is at war, granting them broad authority to detain or remove foreign nationals who would otherwise be protected under immigration or criminal laws. Trump claimed the Tren de Aragua gang was invading the U.S. when he invoked this wartime power.
Tren de Aragua originated in a notorious prison in Venezuela known for its lawlessness. The gang’s growth coincided with an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, most of whom were seeking better living conditions after their country’s economy collapsed in the last decade.
The Trump administration has not identified the deported migrants, presented any evidence that they are actually members of Tren de Aragua, or that they committed any crimes in the U.S.
Video footage released by the El Salvadoran government on Sunday showed men disembarking from airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined with officers in riot gear. The men, who were shackled at the hands and ankles, struggled to walk as officers forced their heads down to make them bend over.
The video also depicted the men being transported to CECOT in a large convoy of buses, escorted by police and military vehicles, and at least one helicopter. The men were shown kneeling on the ground while their heads were shaved before being dressed in the prison’s all-white uniform – knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks, and rubber clogs – and placed in cells.
—Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.