Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, is a Spanish sentence that translates to English as Terrorism Confinement Center, abbreviated as CECOT.
CECOT is a super prison the size of seven football fields with a capacity of 40,000 inmates. You might wonder how 40,000 people fit into this place.
It’s like the shelving system in a warehouse. Now let’s get to it. You should know that the most dangerous country in the world is El Salvador, and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, has turned it into the safest country in Latin America in a very short time.
He managed to capture the dangerous cartels and mafias of El Salvador and throw them into prison. In El Salvador, these cartels and mafias are referred to as terrorists. Nayib Bukele ordered the construction of this prison to ensure that the inmates don’t have much space.
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CECOT was ready for operation a year ago and is still not fully occupied, housing around 13,000 prisoners. The inmates here are not considered human beings. If you ask the officials there who they are, they will say they have two types of beings, humans and terrorists, meaning they are not human.
The prison is located in one of the most remote areas of El Salvador. Let’s start from the outside. If anyone wants to get close to this prison, they have to pass through seven checkpoints.
Checkpoints start one kilometer before the prison and continue until the entrance of the prison.
Even if you are a journalist, you will be thoroughly checked at these checkpoints. You even have to take off your clothes to ensure you don’t have anything with you.
They even inspect the underside of your car, and only when the responsible person at each checkpoint determines that everything is fine, you can proceed to the next checkpoint. The seven barriers have prevented any corruption from existing in this prison. No drugs or mobile phones are allowed, nor anything else illegal.
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As the saying goes, you must pass through seven filters, until you finally reach the entrance of the prison, passing through its unique stages. It’s like boarding a plane but with much stricter surveillance.
Everything you have with you should be put in a basket, and they will take it to a designated room for you. You also need to go through a metal detector machine to ensure you don’t have any cold or hot weapons with you. ThE entrance is specifically for journalists, not for bringing prisoners in this way.
Furthermore, you should know that there are no visitations in CECOT. Even the appointed lawyers cannot enter this prison. If there is a need to speak with a prisoner, they will be taken to a room where there is a television and a camera, and they can have a video conversation with their lawyer.
This communication method is only for lawyers, meaning when a prisoner enters CECOT, they are completely cut off from everything outside, including their closest family members.
Inside this prison, there are powerful jamming devices installed, meaning no mobile phones or wireless devices work here. The officials have their own special wireless system when they need to communicate so the prisoners have no contact with the outside world.
The stages described are the entrance process for a journalist into CECOT. But now, how do prisoners enter this place? The prisoner must be completely undressed, then they are taken through an X-ray machine.
This machine even shows internal body parts, so it reveals anything, even if it’s inside their stomach. Once the prisoner’s belongings are under control, they are given a uniform, a blanket, and a towel. Then they are taken inside. Their hands and feet are restrained, and they are held in a way that they can only see the ground, not their surroundings.
The guards inside the prison usually do not carry firearms. They only have items like batons. However, it’s not that the prisoners are defenseless in there.
Armed guards watch from above, keeping a close eye on everything. The cells in this prison are different from all other prisons worldwide. They are very large rooms where 100 people live together.
There are no enclosed toilets, showers, or bathrooms. First of all, the bed is a metal shelf, and no mattress or pillow. Prisoners have to sleep on the metal, and whoever wants to use the blanket or towel they have to put it under their head.
There is one toilet in the cell with no door, and everyone can see whoever goes to the bathroom, both the guards and the prisoners.
They don’t have showers either. There is a small basin where they can go to clean themselves, and they can dry themselves with the towel they were given, and sit back in place.
In El Salvador, capital punishment exists, but only for war crimes. Terrorism is not included in this law, so execution is not an option for terrorists. However, they receive sentences that are worse than death.
Many prisoners in this facility have sentences that last for thousands of years. Some of them who have committed lesser crimes may have sentences as short as 20 years, which is very rare, maybe only 1%. It should be noted that no one has been released from this prison because it has only been operational for one year.
Bright lights are installed in this prison that never turn off. It is always as bright as day inside. The beds are elevated, and the direct light shines into their eyes.
That’s why they put their towels over their eyes to sleep. The constant brightness of the lights is a form of torture in itself. People living in such an environment are always agitated, and even if they find some inner peace, it disappears quickly.
Additionally, prisoners have no idea what time it is, what day it is, or how long they have been in this prison. All these factors contribute to extreme anxiety and anger in the prisoners. Each cell has a large window with bars facing the main hallway, where guards are always standing and watching inside the cells.
Moreover, the ceiling of each cell has a mesh-like structure that allows the guards on the upper floor to walk and observe the area below. When you exit the building, the guards, who cannot leave the prison, have scattered sandbags around the perimeter. When you walk, they make a crunching sound, and anyone walking can be heard from a distance of 50 meters.
No matter how quietly you try to walk, the sound echoes around the building. Three layers of solid concrete and sturdy mesh fences surround the prison, with the final layer being nine meters high with an electrified mesh. In other words, it can be said that escaping from this prison is impossible, even if there is a corrupt guard who wants to help someone escape.
Every day, they separate ten prisoners at a time. They handcuff their hands and feet and take them to the hallway for half an hour to allow them some movement. After half an hour, they bring them back and take another ten.
The hall where they take them has natural light so that they can see a bit of sunlight. All the officers serving in this prison have their faces covered, and their faces should never be seen. It is for the security of the officer and their family, as a cartel member could potentially identify the prison officer, especially when reporters take footage.
Before Nayib Bukele, El Salvador was in the hands of criminal cartel mafias, and people were terrified of them.
99% of these officials are from the same people, meaning they know what these beings were like. When a prisoner wants to leave his cell, they must definitely handcuff him before he comes out.
Then, they let him out, bind his feet, and connect his hands and feet with chains. And sometimes, they connect several prisoners together and move them.
The government of El Salvador says that if you want to imagine what these people were like, you should know that for example, these 20 people who are exercising have killed at least 200 people.
So don’t think they are just involved in ordinary crimes. In the sports corridor, they unlock their handcuffs and leg restraints so they can exercise, but there are officers standing all around them armed with weapons, keeping an eye on them. Their job is easy in one way.
They can easily understand which group they belong to. The most famous of these groups is MS-13. Different cartels usually have enmity with each other, and in this prison, there are cartels that are blood enemies, especially as if they throw them close to each other.
In one cell, there are several blood enemies who dare not look at each other because they are not afraid of their enemy. They are afraid of the officers who are watching them. Many reporters go there and start protesting, saying, what is this situation?
This is a violation of human rights. Why do you behave like this with prisoners? Prison officials are pleased with these kinds of reporters and invite them, saying, come here and see if they are angels.
They take the file of one of these prisoners and bring it out, saying, read it. It includes rape, kidnapping, murder, robbery, torture of others, drugs, and anything you mention. Most of the time, reporters become convinced and understand that these are criminals and wrongdoers.
El Salvador was under their control before Nayib Bukele, and they had turned the country into a bloodbath. That’s why ordinary people have no sympathy for them.
The people of El Salvador pray to Nayib Bukele that after decades, we can breathe in this country.
Now, if one of these prisoners protests, speaks out, gets into an argument, or creates any other problem, they have to go to the black hole. It’s a dark cement room with only one light, which is the toilet and bathroom. They throw the prisoner in there and keep them there for a few days to weeks, depending on the severity of their mistake.
When the door is closed, there is no light inside, the small hole above can barely be seen. They are given food three times a day, which consists of bread and boiled beans with a little bit of sour cream, which is a Latin American dish. This is their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Every 10 or 15 days, just to keep them from losing their minds, they give them a little bit of rice or some macaroni, but there is no meat in their meals, whether it’s chicken, fish, or red meat. The food is served in plastic containers, not in a communal dining area. They just leave it behind the cell bars so that they can reach out and take it themselves.
When they finish eating, they have to come to the trough, wash their containers, and leave them for the officers to collect. They are not given any spoons or forks with their food, they have to eat with their hands. In most Latin American countries like Brazil, if you visit their prisons, you will see that the criminals and cartels have their own kingdom inside the prison, and the officers are somewhat afraid of them.
However, Nayib Bukele has implemented a different system and managed to tame these criminals.
The government of El Salvador says that this prison is not yet full, it has a capacity for 40,000 prisoners while only 13,000 are currently inside. Just this statement by the government of El Salvador ensures the security of the entire country, and if anyone tries to misbehave, they remember that this prison has plenty of space.
