Nayib Bukele and Gustavo Petro clash on Twitter over security policies

Is the mega-prison in El Salvador able to receive prisoners?

3:26

(CNN Spanish) --

The presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, collided this Wednesday on Twitter due to their differences of vision regarding prison policy and the achievements obtained in terms of security in each country.

Bukele reacted to the criticisms that Petro made of the mega-prison that the Government of El Salvador built with a capacity for 40,000 inmates.

The Salvadoran president defended what he considers a fundamental piece in his war against gangs.

"Of more than 100 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, we are now in single digit figures," Bukele justified.

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In 2018, according to official statistics, El Salvador registered a rate of 50.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and by 2022 that rate dropped to 7.8.

For this year, the authorities project that the average will be close to 2, as René Merino Monroy, Minister of Defense of El Salvador, revealed this Monday during a television interview.

“The results outweigh the rhetoric.

I wish that Colombia actually manages to lower the homicide rates, as we Salvadorans have achieved," Bukele added in his tweet.

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Petro, for his part, suggested that Bukele hold an international forum to compare experiences.

"We went from 90 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993, in Bogotá, to 13 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022. We did not build prisons but universities," said the president.

The president of Colombia harshly criticized the Terrorism Containment Center of El Salvador during the delivery of the expansion of the District University.

Detainees in El Salvador were transferred to a new mega-prison.

“I can't get into other countries, but there is a concentration camp in El Salvador.

There are thousands and thousands of young people incarcerated that give one the chills.

There are people who like to see young people in jails and believe that this is security,” Petro said.

The head of state referred to the transfer of the first 2,000 inmates to the mega-prison, carried out with extensive security that included armored vehicles and helicopters with snipers.

"The president of El Salvador feels proud because he managed to reduce the homicide rate, he says, by subjugating the gangs that today are in those prisons, which in my opinion are gruesome," Petro said.

President Gustavo Petro during an event in January 2023. Archive image.

(Credit: Getty Images/Getty Images)

The gigantic prison has eight modules.

In each one there will be 5,000 prisoners and, in each cell, a little more than 100 inmates, who will not have the opportunity to leave, unless they participate in a hearing that will be carried out through videoconference, the authorities explained to CNN during a visit. guided.

"This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, mixed, without being able to do more harm to the population," Bukele said in a tweet to publicize the massive transfer on February 24.

According to Bukele, all those transferred to the mega-prison have already been sentenced by the Salvadoran justice system.

The official communication medium of the Government of the United States says that these assassins, judicially convicted of murdering thousands of Salvadorans, are "suspected gang members."

Why do they publicly defend gang members?

What is your interest in protecting criminals?

https://t.co/g5OJW5YrP2

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 25, 2023

The Government of El Salvador has received criticism for its security plan.

Organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and local human rights organizations have criticized what they consider to be violations of the rights of the population with the implementation of the emergency regime that the Government imposed to combat gangs or maras.

They have even requested, without success, its repeal, since the authorities have said that they will continue with its implementation because national citizen security has improved.

Colombia newsEl SalvadorGustavo PetroNayib Bukele