CRIME CRACKDOWN

Thousands of Salvadoran Gang Members Rounded Up in Brutal ‘Megaprison’

Inmates were stripped down, shackled together, and force to live in cells holding over 100 people.

El Salvador’s populist President Nayib Bukele is taking “tough-on-crime” to a new level. On Friday, the Salvadoran government transferred over 2,000 detainees arrested on gang charges to a sprawling, open-air “megaprison” constructed as part of an iron-fisted crackdown on organized crime. Photos show inmates with their heads shaved, stripped down to underwear, and stacked nose-to-back at the “Terrorism Confinement Center,” which has a total capacity of 40,000. Each cell in the prison holds over 100 inmates, who share just two toilets and sinks. “This will be their new home, where they won’t be able to do any more harm to the population,” Bukele said in a tweet. Bukele, who once called himself the “world’s coolest dictator,” has run roughshod over constitutional rights in his “war on gangs,” arresting over 64,000 suspects since last year. While many human rights activists have criticized his tactics, he remains overwhelmingly popular with the Salvadoran people, who say they have seen a marked improvement in their quality of life.