Inside Bukele megaprison: Inmates will no longer eat meat, sleep with a pillow or see their families

El Salvador’s most dangerous criminals look down the hall through the bars of certain integrated cages. There’s almost no sunlight, there are no windows, the ceiling is extremely high and it’s “intensely claustrophobic.” This is how a group of journalists from cnn At Terrorist Containment Center (Cecot) of Nayib Bukele .

Also known as the “megaprison of Bukele “, Cecot houses hundreds of prisoners accused of murder, drug trafficking and mafia, and who belong to dangerous gangs like Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18.

With the controversial state of emergency in El Salvador, the Salvadoran president issued the order of zero tolerance towards gang members. Many prisoners were detained without being informed or sentenced.

NOW, They wear a white t-shirt and shorts, socks and sandals. All of their heads are shaved, revealing more clearly the tattoos many have on their faces and scalps.

A team of cnn made a private visit to the site and delivered exclusive details on how megaprison prisoners live from El Salvador. This is what they reported.

The Cecot or “mega prison” was inaugurated almost two years ago, but it has become one of the pillars supporting Nayib Bukele’s popularity. He is the icon of the “fight against gangs” who successfully “cleaned” the streets of homicides, violence, traffic and other crimes.

However, many organizations and journalists They denounced arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment, torture and even the death of prisoners.

“The cruel treatment that men suffer is clearly visible throughout Cecot” wrote the journalists who visited the prison.

The first thing they saw was more than 20 congregate cells housing about 80 inmates.

In them, a careful cleaning stands out, but also that The only furniture that exists are metal beds that have no mattresses, sheets, let alone pillows.

For the bathroom, there is an open toilet a cement container and a plastic bucket for washing.

They also have a large jug for drinking water.

Some prisoners stand in a defiant posture and try to look at the journalists, while others remain seated, motionless and cross-legged, avoiding contact with them or their cameras, “almost ashamed.”

Out of 24 hours a day, inmates remain locked in cells for 23 and a half hours. During the “free” half hour, they can go out into the central hallway to exercise or read the Bible.

When it’s time to eat, plates of food are brought directly into the cells by passing them through a small slot. They never serve meat.

“What they get for breakfast is beans, cheese or a mixture of rice and beans. Maybe some plantain and a cup of coffee or atole (a corn drink),” he said cnn the director of Cecot, Belarmino García.

For lunch, they are served rice, pasta and a drink. And dinner is the same as breakfast.

“There’s no meat here, there’s no chicken here, “There are no special menus for anyone here.”

None of the 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners incarcerated will ever have privacy or comfort again.

The guards who monitor them are fully armed and masked, and attentive to every movement that occurs inside and outside the cells.

There are no moments of darkness either. Cecot lights are on 24/7.

Journalists who visited the scene described the detainees as looking “worried”: “There is a blankness in some of their eyes, a disconcerting blankness that suggests their souls have vanished, leaving only husks behind.”

Additionally, they highlighted the inmates’ “obedience” to their guards: at one point, an officer approached a cell and ordered them to take off their shirts. “They do so submissively and immediately, revealing the tattoos of MS-13 and Barrio 18.”

If detainees benefit from a consultation or a legal hearing, there are concrete rooms in their same sectors. There they also receive medical visits, if they need them.

But besides themselves, the guards and a few doctors, The Bukele prisoners don’t see anyone else. It is not allowed to receive visits from family or friends.

And so that no one escapes, Everything around the prison is protected by electrified fences, 19 watchtowers and checkpoints on the outskirts. Thus, they thoroughly search any person or vehicle.

There is also no signal for phones, let alone the Internet. : “Cell phone signals disappeared as we approached the imposing steel gate of the prison, the only way in or out.”

The team of cnn He asked to speak to a detainee and the Salvadoran authorities agreed: from one of the prisons, they took Marvin Vásquez, an avowed leader of Mara Salvatrucha.

He is 41 years old and agreed to speak “only to dissuade young people from following in his footsteps”.

His hands and ankles are chained and two armed guards stand by his side.

Vásquez told reporters that he grew up in Los Angeles, United States, but life took him to El Salvador. He then made a blunt statement.

“Some wanted to become lawyers, police officers, soldiers. I wanted to be a gang member and I wanted to achieve everything I wanted. And so far, I think I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish.

He was just a child when he joined MS-13, but over time he rose through the ranks and created his own cell of the gang, which he named “Mad Criminals”, a name which he also tattooed on his back.

“Steal, kill, do whatever it takes to survive” he replied when journalists questioned him about his crimes.

They asked him more directly if he had killed someone.

“Yeah. It’s gang life. I don’t even know how to tell you how much. We don’t think about how many people we have to kill. “We just do what we have to do to survive.”

He later said he estimated there were between 20 and 30 people and that on one occasion he “destroyed” a car full of people in the United States. He also mentioned that it was unlikely that people would not have survived this attack.

Asked about his stay at Cecot, he replied that “It’s probably not a 5-star hotel, but that’s what it is for us. They feed you three times, they give you programs, you can exercise, and religious or religious programs.

“But you know, that’s how it is. We have to get used to what we have to get used to here. There is no other option for us. We did bad things. We paid for it the hardest way, by serving our sentence.

The guards took the prisoner back to his cell, while the prison director told the team of journalists that “as you have just seen, with what cynicism they say ‘yes, I killed, I did this, I did that. ‘… What we have here is the worst of the worst.