The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, inaugurated the Center for the Repression of Terrorism, with a capacity for 40,000 inmates and whose construction began during the state of emergency, in force since March.
During the visit to the prison by several members of the Salvadoran government, the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, said that it is the “largest prison in America”, from which “it would be impossible to escape”, according to the EFE news agency.
The establishment, which has an extension of 23 hectares, will be guarded by 600 soldiers and 250 police officers, reported the Minister of Defense, René Merino, and the director of the Civil Police, Mauricio Arriaza.
The prison was built on land “owned by the State” in the municipality of Tecoluca, a rural area in the department of San Vicente, in central El Salvador, and “will operate far from urban centers,” the Salvadoran Presidency said.
In July, the President had said, in a message posted on the social network Twitter, that the prison “would have space for 40,000 terrorists, who will be isolated from the outside world,” without disclosing the cost of the work.
The construction provoked criticism from the opposition, which pointed to the lack of transparency, mainly due to the approval in the parliament, dominated by the ruling party, of a law that allowed the usual requirements for public works to be circumvented.
In mid-January, the Cristosal organization filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional a series of decrees that “favor corruption,” including the Special Law for the Construction of Emergency Penitentiary Centers.
The law was approved by parliament in March 2022, as part of the declaration of “war” against organized gangs decreed by Bukele, which has already led to the arrest of around 58,000 alleged members of criminal gangs, in particular the fearsome “mara salvatrucha” .
According to a survey by the Central American University (UCA), around 76% of Salvadorans support the state of emergency and nine out of ten believe that crime has been reduced.
The state of emergency, decreed at the end of March, after a wave of 87 murders attributed to the “maras”, allows arrests without a warrant and has aroused criticism from human rights organizations.
Source: TSF
