Since El Salvador established the emergency regime in March 2022, 62,975 people have been apprehended.
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, inaugurated the Terrorism Containment Centerwhich will house more than 40,000 gang members, and whose protection will require 600 soldiers from the Armed Forces and 250 members of the National Civil Police.
Terrorism Containment Center https://t.co/TSCkfl41EY
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 1, 2023
The announcement was made known on Tuesday, through a videotaped message in which the president stressed that before his government, “instead of punishing the bad, they punished the good, they rewarded the criminal.”
The new prison is located in an area far from the population in the municipality of Tecoluca in the department of San Vicente, east of the country’s capital. The complex covers an area of 236 blocks. or 1,645 kilometers, almost seven times the size of the Cuscatlán Stadium, the most emblematic soccer arena in El Salvador.
The center has pavilions for the confinement of prisoners, a warehouse for weapons and security equipment, and a factory where prisoners can attend more than 60 workshops, including painting, desks, textiles, among others.
To ensure the security of the prison, there is a space to control the access of foreign visitors, which is equipped with a full body scanner system, a package scanner and a metal arch. It is also planned that the prison will be guarded by guard dogs, so a home for the animals was built.
Inside and outside the facilities #CECOTmore than 600 soldiers of the @FUERZARMADASV and 250 troops from the @PNCSV They will support 24/7 in security tasks to deal with any possible disturbance. pic.twitter.com/Vw7YWUPylM
— Presidential House ?? (@PresidenciaSV) February 1, 2023
While for the operational management of the complex, an administration and a custodian building were built.
Since the Government established the emergency regime in March 2022 to capture all those suspected of generating violence in the country, the authorities have seized 2,200 firearms and have apprehended 62,975 suspected terrorists, according to figures of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
The measure saturated the available space in El Salvador’s prisons by 358%, if the previously installed prison capacity of nearly 30,000 locations is taken into account, of agreement with local media. For this reason, President Bukele announced the construction of a new complex in Tecoluca.
“There will come a time when they will not fit [los detenidos]and that is why I have ordered that we begin to build another prison,” the president reported during an event with the Armed Forces last April.
The security strategy implemented by the Government has been criticized by multiple organizations, which accuse the authorities of committing violations against human rights.
President Bukele, however, has defended the measure, retaking the results obtained and that is that, only in January 2023, the country hill with an annual homicide rate below two cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest in the entire American continent, according to the president.
