The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who launched a "war" against gangs 10 months ago, presented
the "largest jail in America"
, where he will lock up 40,000 suspected gang members.
The mega prison was built in an isolated rural area in a valley near Tecoluca, 74 km southeast of San Salvador, and was inspected by Bukele.
The
166-hectare
property has a dozen pavilions that occupy 23 hectares, explained the Minister of Public Works, Romeo Rodríguez, on a national radio and television network.
The facilities of the Terrorism Containment Center inaugurated, in Tecoluca (El Salvador) (EFE).
Called by the government "Center for the Confinement of Terrorism", it has surveillance systems with video circuits and scanners to review those who enter.
"Any person belonging to a terrorist structure is the one who is going to enter this confinement center," said the Vice Minister of Justice and Public Security, Osiris Luna.
It is "the largest prison in all of America," said Minister Rodríguez.
an impregnable prison
The prison has a
2.1 kilometer perimeter wall
, which will be guarded day and night by
600 soldiers and 250 policemen
.
Inside, security will be in charge of guards from the General Directorate of Penal Centers.
The cells are made of
reinforced concrete and have thick steel bars
.
The prison has its own wells to extract drinking water.
Luna anticipated that the inmates
will have to work
in this prison.
The prison will be guarded day and night by 600 soldiers and 250 policemen (EFE).
Bukele affirmed that previous Salvadoran governments "had gang members (prisoners)
with prostitutes
, with PlayStation equipment, with screens, with cell phones, with computers, rewarding the offender."
The president did not specify when the first of the almost 63,000 suspected gang members detained in the framework of the war against gangs will be transferred to the mega prison.
The massive arrests, criticized by human rights organizations, are protected by an emergency regime that allows arrests without a warrant.
It was approved by Congress at the request of Bukele in response to a homicidal escalation that claimed the lives of 87 people from March 25 to 27.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (left) in the prison facilities (EFE).
On Friday, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced that there is "extreme overcrowding" in Salvadoran prisons as a result of arrests without a warrant of suspects.
The country's twenty prisons currently have a capacity for
30,000 prisoners.
Bukele had initially said that the mega jail would be finished in September.
The authorities have not explained the causes of this delay.
AFP Agency.
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