Thread: El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown

El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown

• 
  1/2
  El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown
  
  FILE PHOTO: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele presents the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca
  
  
  
• 
  2/2
  El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown
  
  FILE PHOTO: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele presents the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca
  
  
  

Wed, February 1, 2023 at 4:02 PM EST






SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Authorities in El Salvador have opened one of Latin America's largest prisons, more than doubling the country's incarceration capacity, as a government crackdown on criminal gangs is causing the prison population to soar.

The 40,000-capacity Terrorism Confinement Center was inaugurated on Tuesday to help relieve some of the overpopulation in the country's prison system.

Since President Nayib Bukele asked the country's congress to approve a state of exception in March, the police and army have arrested more than 62,000 suspected gang members and their collaborators.

Under the measure some constitutional rights have been suspended, including allowing authorities to make arrests without a warrant and giving the government access to citizens' communication.

With nearly two percent of its adult population behind bars, El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

The rising inmate population as a result of the anti-gang measures, which the vast majority of the population supports, has stretched the country's already overwhelmed prison system. El Salvador's largest prison, La Esperanza, currently holds 33,000 people despite having a capacity of 10,000.

El Salvador's Prisons Director Osiris Luna said the new prison will span over 166 hectares (410 acres), while 600 troops and 250 police officers will secure it.

"All those home boys, those terrorists in the organization that made our beloved Salvadoran people suffer, will be house and subjected to a severe regimen," Luna said on state television.

By 2021, El Salvador's prison system had 20 penal centers with a capacity for 30,000 holding 35,976 prisoners.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Sandra Maler)


https://www.yahoo.com/news/el-salvad...210208675.html

Put them down, put them OUT of our misery.

And give those men vasectomies and women on birth control so they stop popping out more of these violent vermin who destroy our lives.

Give them the drugs they are sending over our border to murder us. Karma!