Another 2,000 gangsters were herded like animals into the worst prison in the world

The world’s worst prison is now 10 percent full after the arrival of a second batch of 2,000 gangsters.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele built the Terrorist Detention Center, which he says is the largest mega-prison in America, to house his country’s most dangerous gang members.

He proudly showed the world photos of inmates being driven like animals, despite the concerns of humanitarian organizations.

The first 2,000 prisoners arrived at the end of last month. and on Thursday they were joined by another 2,000 people.

“Today, as part of a new operation, we moved the second batch of 2,000 bandits to the Center for Combating Terrorism (CECOT),” President Bukele said on his Facebook page. “With that in mind, there are now 4,000 gangsters in the most criticized prison in the world.”

Once again, the photos are shocking.

President Naib Bukele’s “war” on crime targets members of the MS-13 and 18 gangs.

He posts videos showing barefoot, tattooed men dressed only in white boxers, hunched over and with their hands behind their shaved heads.

They stand close together, each sitting with their feet on either side of the person in front of them, while armed guards in balaclavas watch them.

They are loaded onto buses, handcuffed and shackled, to be transported to the new prison in a convoy including helicopters.

In the new facility, the men are laid down in a similar manner and then taken in large groups to their cells, where they are left to sit on the floor in front of stacked metal beds with no visible mattresses.

“This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, all mixed up, unable to cause more harm to the population,” says Bukele.

“We are ridding society of this cancer,” adds the Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro.

“Know that you will never leave CECOT, you will pay for who you are… cowardly terrorists.”

Built on the orders of Bukele after he declared “war” on the gangs last March, the prison in Tecoluca, 74 kilometers southeast of the capital San Salvador, consists of eight reinforced concrete buildings.

According to Minister of Public Works Romeo Rodriguez, each of them has 32 cells of about 100 square meters, designed to hold “more than 100” prisoners.

Each cell has only two sinks and two toilets.

There are just 80 metal beds for every 100 prisoners, and human rights groups and observers have criticized the design as violating detention standards.

“There will be no mattresses in the cells,” a prison warden, who wore a ski mask to hide his identity, told reporters during a presentation of the project.

Although the prison is equipped with canteens, gyms and table tennis tables, these are reserved exclusively for the guards.

Prisoners will leave the cell only for court hearings via videoconference or for punishment in solitary confinement with no windows and no lights.

About 63,000 alleged gang members have been arrested since Bukele declared a state of emergency a few months ago, allowing arrests to be made without a warrant in a country plagued by violence.

Human rights groups say people are being arrested simply for having tattoos, and prison officials say a population of 40,000 would be unruly.

– with AFP

Originally published as Another 2,000 gangsters were herded like animals into the worst prison in the world