El Salvador’s So-Called ‘Mega-Jail’

investigation has used computer generated reconstructions to reveal what life is like inside Cecot, El Salvador’s so-called ‘mega-jail’. Now we’re going to head to El Salvador, where back in February the President announced he was moving thousands of high-ranking gang members to the country’s new socalled Mega Jail. Since then there’s been no information released about who exactly is being held or conditions there in the prison.

July 15, 2023

Has used computer generated reconstructions to reveal what life is like inside at the Mega Jails cells at Larry Ventas reports.

This government footage of El Salvador, so-called Mega person, went viral when it was released in February. It’s called the Terrorism Confinement Center, or Seacot, if the centerpiece of Salvadoran President Naive Bukele’s self declared war on gangs.

El Salvador’s so-called Mega person

Since the huge media campaign that surrendered its opening, there has been no other information about life inside. Secret Relatives of those detained have been desperately trying to find out what’s happened to them. I saw the video on Facebook and I was going through it, posting and rewinding. He was almost unrecognizable, so very thined I only knew it was him by his status.

El Salvador’s so-called Mega

Angelika says her husband has no links with gangs. She’s heard nothing further about him since he was arrested under emergency powers brought in in March 2022 by President Bukelli. Through satellite imagery, data released by the Salvadoran government and documents seen by BBC Mundo, we’ve gathered information about the site. There are 8 cell blocks monitored by 19 watchtowers.

Inside the cells, the beds are metal plates and there are two toilets open to the room. So far, the authorities say they have transferred 4000 prisoners to the jail and that there is capacity for up to 40,000. The BBC has found that at full capacity, each person would have not .58 square meters of space. The International Committee of the Red Cross recommends 3.4 square meters in a shared cell.

Since the emergency anti gun measures were introduced, at least 68,000 people have been arrested and crime has plummeted. Last year the murder rate fell by 56.8%. President Bukeli and his policies are extremely popular, but human rights groups and protesters say the measures have led to serious human rights abuses.

Conditions that SECOT could become inhumane and degrading because no one has access to that prison. No lawyers, no ombudsman, not even the media can enter and verify the conditions inside. During the BBC interview in March, the security minister said this about secret.

This is the biggest monument to justice we have ever built. We have nothing to hide.

The members of peace terrorist organizations are the ones who will go to SECOT. We have made a commitment to the people of El Salvador that they will never be released to the communities.

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BBC Mundo asked to film Inside Seacote for an interview with the government to address the wider issues in this report, but they declined to comment.

Questions inevitably thrown up by this report in this investigation, what are the main questions around human rights and legal issues? Well, there are many, many, many questions around this this mega mega jails for four months after it’s it’s opening, for instance. We don’t know who are the people there. It’s supposed to be for the main leaders of the of the two main gangs in El Salvador, which are the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio.

See also But we know nothing about their identities or why there are at least officially 4000 people in this Mega Jail.

If the maximum capacity is for 40,000 people. So again this is especially a worry for the relatives as as we saw in the in the video as they know they they don’t know they know nothing about the the the location of the so many people who have been arrested during the last year of the state of emergency in El Salvador. But secondly and maybe even more important is that we know very little about the the conditions inside this Mega jail that’s why we.

We have a recreated in this special investigation some details of the of the jail of the cells. So you know you can you can have a like a context like a general idea about about how many how are these people living inside this this cell. And and again we saw for instance according to some documents shared with us by an engineer who was involved in the in the construction of the Macca jail we saw that each prisoner has an A space.

In each cell, which is almost six times smaller than the officer recommendation by the Red Cross. The The thing is that no one can access this this mega jail to see the current conditions. No media, no NGO’s. What we know is that according to a recent report by one of the the main NGO’s, human rights NGO’s in El Salvador, Cristosal, we know that more than 150 people died in.

In the whole country, in different prisons of the of the whole country during this last year, many of them because of torture, beatings, general vigilance against them and lack of medical treatment. So of course, this is a huge concern for for human rights organizations. OK, Marcos, thank you very much for talking to us. Thank you. into