Mexican YouTuber Luisito Comunica recorded a video from inside
CECOT
, the largest prison in America according to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador who inaugurated it last year to decompress the prisons of his country.
Luisito remained in the hallway that divides the 32 cells while he was watched by thousands of pairs of eyes.
The
Terrorism Confinement Center
- as it was formally called - can house up to
40,000 prisoners
, most of them members of dominant gangs in El Salvador, such as the
Mara Salvatrucha
and
La 18
.
The most dangerous criminals in the country are in the CECOT.
They serve sentences ranging from 20 years to more than 1,000.
Everyone there
either raped or killed or kidnapped
or combined some of these crimes.
A scary experience
In his video, which exceeded 5 million views in one day, the YouTuber shows what the process was like to be allowed in, since
the CECOT does not allow visits
beyond journalists.
First they took all his belongings and then they searched even his socks.
During his journey he was guarded by prison guards.
Approximately 100 prisoners enter each cell.
Photo: YT
The moment of greatest fear was experienced when showing the prisoners' exercise.
Inmates only leave their community cells (an average of 100 enter each one) to have hearings with their lawyers, hear new sentences and exercise.
Nothing else
.
In the latter case they do it in small groups of five or ten.
First they place handcuffs inside the cells and then, when they come out, they put them on their feet.
Thus, handcuffed, they go inside a circle of guards to exercise without any ties.
The prisoners exercise in groups and without ties.
Photo: YT
“They have just given me information that managed to shock and that is that
this group alone, behind my back, is very possibly responsible directly or indirectly for 200 homicides
.
What a fact that paralyzes the blood once they are formed,” says Luisito while describing what the exercise that the inmates do is like.
“It is somewhat terrifying to be a few meters from murderers and kidnappers without any type of protection.
“This is an experience that is a little scary
,” she concludes.
The conditions of the prisoners in the CECOT
Luisito in an isolation cell.
Photo: YT
The CECOT is a maximum security prison, in addition to the reasons already mentioned, due to its extreme precautionary measures.
Before arriving there are seven checkpoints that extend over a kilometer.
In the cells, to which the prisoners arrive after being rigorously scanned, there are only metal bunks that they use to sleep and a kind of sink where the food dishes are washed and rinsed.
The lights are on all day
so that the inmates lose track of time, which is why many rest with their shirts covering their eyes.
In addition to the linen, when they enter they give each one a sheet and a towel.
The front of the CECOT.
Photo: YT
For the most problematic prisoners there is an
isolation cell
that has nothing more than a cement bed, a sink and a toilet.
There is only a small hole of light that is not enough to illuminate the place.
Another strategy that CECOT uses is to homogenize the prison population.
All prisoners are shaved and each cell is inhabited by members of enemy gangs.
The food that inmates often eat.
Photo: YT
The prison guards cover their faces for safety and have a weapons barracks in case a riot breaks out.
They walk on a platform designed to control the prisoners from above and when they are outside there are different checkpoints.
Regarding health and food, they have the right to have a nurse give them the pills they need to improve their condition and they eat what other prisoners with lesser sentences from other prisons prepare for them.
Most often it is rice or pasta.
This is what the community cells look like.
Photo: YT
Outside CECOT there are stones that ring when someone steps on them and concrete walls up to 9 meters high along with 3-meter electrified fences.