President Nayib Bukele offered the iron fist that he has imposed in the prisons of his country El Salvador, so that one of them can be a space where the United States can house deportees and detainees for other crimes. The North American nation has not yet given a response of whether it accepts or not, but if the answer is positive, the Salvadoran president has prepared a mega prison with more than 40,000 spots.
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But, what is the prison proposed by Bukele to house deportees like? In the following lines we will see it.
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The offer from the President of El Salvador is to detain deported illegal immigrants of any nationality, as well as American convicts. He presented this proposal on Monday to Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States during a visit to his country.
The American president Donald Trump said that he is considering the possibility of sending those convicted of more serious cases. "We are studying it right now, but we could reach agreements to get those animals out of the United States," he stated.
Bukele offered his megaprison as a subcontractor "in exchange for a fee", but the amount he is asking for is unknown.
Details of the mega-prison that Bukele offered to the United States for deportees
The megaprison that Nayib Bukele offered to states is known as Cecot, which is the abbreviation for the Terrorism Confinement Center. The penitentiary has become a source of pride for his administration, as it is a maximum-security facility and one of the largest in Latin America.
Cecot was inaugurated in January 2023 and has the capacity to hold more than 40,000 inmates. The BBC provided details of this Bukele megaprison, specifying that the inmates are confined in cells without windows and sleep on metal bunk beds.
The aforementioned media outlet states that in 2024 they were able to take a tour of the site and confirmed that temperatures reach 35°C.
The number of inmates per cell has not been confirmed by the media, but human rights organizations have reported up to 80 prisoners, while others say there are more than 150. However, when the BBC News Mundo journalist asked the director of Cecot about the capacity per cell, he replied that "where 10 people fit, 20 fit."
Surveillance is constant by the armed officers.
The inmates are in their cells 24 hours a day and only go out for 30 minutes to an indoor hallway to exercise.
In this mega-prison of Bukele, literally, the sun cannot be seen, fulfilling the warning that has already been given to criminals. The same president expressed on his social media in 2022, after a violent weekend, that: "Message to the gangs: because of your actions, your guys won't be able to see a ray of sun."