British journalist David Jones says he was the first UK reporter allowed inside El Salvador’s mega prison, CECOT. The Terrorism Confinement Centre can hold 40,000 inmates. It mainly holds alleged MS-13 and Barrio 18 gang members.
Jones describes a harsh routine built for control. Prisoners stay in mass cells for about 23.5 hours a day. They sit on metal bunks stacked high. They leave only for searches, medical checks, short exercise, Bible reading, and remote court hearings.
Prison director Belarmino Garcia would not say how many inmates are inside. He denied claims of abuse. He said staff keep order with an “ultra-hard regime.”
The article says human rights groups point to 266 deaths in custody since President Nayib Bukele began his crackdown in 2022. Under a continuing “state of exception,” the government has jailed tens of thousands of suspected gang members. The report says the murder rate has dropped, but critics say some innocent people were detained.
Jones links CECOT to a new US plan. After talks between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bukele, the Salvadoran leader offered to take deported criminals for funding. Rubio’s spokesman called it “an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country.”
Jones says one inmate told him: “if we are alive, we still hope,” before guards led him away.