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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Inside the prison of the living dead: DAVID JONES is the first British journalist to visit El Salvador's godforsaken 40,000 capacity mega prison | |
| 2025-02-08 | |
Members of two of the most savage rival gangs the world has seen, El Salvador’s Ms-13 and Barrio 18, they raped and tortured, murdered and mutilated, cut bodies to pieces and strewed them around the streets to strike terror in the neighbourhoods they controlled. On my journey to the world-renowned prison that holds them, the Latin American country’s new Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), my government escorts had shown me photographic evidence of their grisly handiwork. Everyone has their own vision of hell. For George Orwell, in his dystopian classic 1984, it was a boot forever stamping on a human face. However, I can imagine no greater torment than being consigned to CECOT, with no hope of ever being released, like the inmates here whose sentences range from 60 to more than 1,000 years. Death would be infinitely more merciful. A thought that might concentrate the minds of the violent US criminals and lawless migrants Donald Trump aims to banish here, under the terms of an unprecedented deal agreed with El Salvador’s president this week. I will come back to that. One of the world’s biggest prisons, with a 40,000 capacity (equivalent to almost half the UK’s current prison population), CECOT was built two years ago amid a huge crackdown on the gangs destroying the fabric of Salvadoran society. Its director Belarmino Garcia declined to tell me how many prisoners are currently held there, but there are many thousands of the worst of the worst gangsters. Related: CECOT: 2024-07-30 Fascinating and horrifying secrets of El Salvador mega-prison for gangs credited with slashing murders by 70% CECOT: 2023-06-01 At least 153 of the prisoners rounded up in El Salvador's notorious 'war on gangs' and shipped to huge new prisons without trial are now DEAD, human rights group warns CECOT: 2023-02-25 Mega-prison in El Salvador for 40,000 suspected gangsters – which has only 80 beds for every 100 inmates - welcomes its first new inmates with vow 'You will never walk out of here' | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #6 I forget, did those terrorists at GITMO ever get a trial? I forget, it's been a while. I mean, we do like the Just-Us system. Just wondering. |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2025-02-08 18:50 |
| #5 BBC usually writes these hit pieces, but I guess they didn't make payroll for some reason... |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2025-02-08 11:37 |
| #4 Death would be infinitely more merciful. But not for the virtue signalers who need to feel 'morally superior' to others. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-02-08 07:14 |
| #3 LOL, No! They just got there: ACLU raises alarm on migrants’ conditions at Guantánamo Bay |
| Posted by: Frank G 2025-02-08 07:06 |
| #2 Noem reveals 2nd flight of 'dangerous criminal aliens' left for Gitmo ahead of her visit |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-08 05:06 |
| #1 Trump deporting criminal aliens to Guantanamo Bay: Meet the hardened terrorists they'll join |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-08 04:59 |