(CNN) — The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, visited the facilities of the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison with eight modules that will soon start operating and that, according to projections by the authorities, will serve to detain at least 40,000 members of gangs. The tour was shown on Tuesday night by the national radio and television network.
The cells are made of concrete, the doors are made of reinforced steel and the water that will arrive for the use of the inmates will be controlled by the guards. “If he enters this center, he will not come out once more,” said Osiris Luna, director of Penal Centers, one of the officials who accompanied the president on the visit.
The authorities explained that the inmates will not leave the prison and will participate in the judicial hearings via videoconference. The director of Penal Centers explained that when an inmate is transferred from the cell to the courtroom he will wear shackles on his hands and feet. The same procedure will be followed if he is taken to the isolation room for punishment.
The Terrorism Containment Center, #BLINDhas the following areas:
✅ Pavilions for the confinement of prisoners
✅ House for guard dogs
✅ Custodian building
✅ Access control with full body scanner, parcel scanner and metallic arch pic.twitter.com/YoUiAast07— Presidential House ???????? (@PresidenciaSV) February 1, 2023
“He is not going to go out to the hearings, threaten the judges, threaten witnesses, to occupy the exit to organize himself with the structures,” Bukele said while making the visit.
During the tour, the public security authorities explained to the president that to prevent a leak, the prison will have several security rings, including a 15,000-volt electrified fence and prison guards, soldiers, and police officers who will control the perimeter through 19 watchtowers. A group of 50 members of the National Civil Police will permanently support the searches.
Terrorism Containment Center https://t.co/TSCkfl41EY
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 1, 2023
“And that the puppeteers do not come to tell us that we are violating the human rights of the terrorists, because El Salvador has taken the same path that first world countries took to be what they are, the path of justice,” assured this tuesday Gustavo Villatoro, Minister of Justice and Security, in a message on his Twitter account.
The implementation of the emergency regime has provoked criticism from both social organizations in El Salvador and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, considering that it violates human rights.
Since the end of March 2022, when the emergency regime was implemented in response to an upsurge in violence that left 62 murders in a single day, the Government of El Salvador has captured more than 62,000 people, according to security authorities. public.
