Inside CECOT: El Salvador’s Controversial Prison
A photograph of inmates inside the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
By Jim Wells ‘26
On March 26, 2022, gang violence in El Salvador claimed the lives of 62 people, marking the deadliest day in the country’s history in 30 years. In response, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele issued a state of exception, temporarily suspending certain constitutional rights and civil liberties of citizens in an effort to quell the violence. The result of this government crackdown was the Centro de Cofinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a maximum-security prison located in the town of Tecoluca, approximately 40 miles from the nation’s capital. This article explores the historical context of gang violence in El Salvador, the establishment and operational framework of CECOT, its social implications, human rights considerations, and potential solutions for the complex issues surrounding the facility as well as the broader socio-political environment in the country.
The Historical Context of Gang Violence in El Salvador
Though El Salvador has historically been comprised of predominantly rural, agrarian communities, rapid urbanization in the 1960s led to an explosion of industry within the country. Despite this development, the nation suffered an increase in the disparity of wealth distribution, with both land and household income becoming less equally distributed from 1961-1975. In 1979, following decades of civil and economic unrest, El Salvador’s president, Carlos Romero, was ousted in a military coup d’état, and the Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) took power. Backed by the United States, which sought influence in the region under the guise of the Truman Doctrine, the JRG-led government of El Salvador waged a 13-year civil war against the Cuban-backed Farabundo Martí National Liberation (FMLN). While approximately 75,000 Salvadorans were killed during the conflict, human rights violations were also particularly pervasive. In 1993, the U.N. Truth Commission published a report stating that the JRG had been responsible for upwards of 85% of the acts of violence committed against civilians during the war, including, but not limited to, torture, sexual violence, and forced disappearances.
In response to the conflict, tens of thousands of Salvadorans sought refuge in the United States. While these immigrants were initially given temporary protected status as political refugees, the Clinton administration chose to discontinue this policy, and on December 31, 1994, the policy expired. Thousands of the refugees who were sent back were young men, many of whom had deserted from either the JFG or FMLN during the war. Possessing little more than their ability to fight, these young men formed the central feature of gangs like MS-13 and Mara 18.
The Establishment of CECOT
By 2015, the homicide rate in El Salvador had increased to 105 per 100,000 people, making it the most violent country in the Western Hemisphere. Following the 2019 presidential election, however, newly elected leader Nayib Bukele sought to make changes. A member of the Nuevas Ideas Party, Bukele’s populist campaign had promised to return safety and security to the people of El Salvador by lowering the crime rate and addressing drug trafficking. In an attempt to quell the gang violence, Bukele’s government began construction on CECOT the following year. On February 1, 2023, the prison officially opened, receiving its first 2,000 prisoners.
The facility is designed to accommodate up to 40,000 inmates in an environment that aims to prevent gang coordination and influence both inside and outside the prison walls. CECOT features 256 highly secure cells that can house up to 156 inmates each. Inmates spend upwards of 23 and a half hours per day in these cells, being let out into a common room only to participate in guided, body-weight exercises or to attend religious services. No prisoner ever leaves the building where his cell block is located. CECOT currently houses approximately 14,000 inmates convicted of gang activity, all of whom will spend the remainder of their respective lives there.
The prison’s layout is intended to minimize interaction among inmates. The design reflects the government's priority to mitigate the risks posed by gang leaders who might orchestrate criminal activities from behind bars. This isolation strategy is critical in a context where prisons often become hubs for gang operations. Additionally, the prison has implemented some of the most stringent security measures in the world, including, but not limited to, state-of-the-art camera systems, artificial light fixtures that never shut off, full body X-ray scans for anyone entering the prison, and continuous monitoring by armed guards.
Human Rights Considerations
The treatment of inmates inside of CECOT has been subject to criticism by multiple human rights organizations. Critics of the facility’s practices have described CECOT as “a black hole for human rights.” Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, has described CECOT as a facility built to “dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty.”
Inmates sleep on metal bunks without any mattresses, pillows, or blankets, receiving only a single sheet. Each 80-man cell has only two water basins for inmates to wash their clothes and themselves as well as two toilets that lack any degree of privacy. There are also no windows, fans, or air conditioning in the facility despite El Salvador’s hot and humid climate, leading temperatures inside the prison to spike to upwards of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. In terms of diet, CECOT’s inmates are bereft of valuable nutrients, being fed only rice, pasta, tortillas, beans, and cream. According to the facility’s warden, any type of meat or fruit “does not exist for a person deprived of freedom.” Moreover, inmates have no access to any form of commissary to supplement the lack of vitamins in the food they are given.
In addition to the morally questionable living conditions that inmates experience, the isolation they face once arriving at CECOT is equally unnerving. Inmates are allowed no contact with the outside world except to seek legal counsel via a virtual platform. This rule includes the deprivation of phone calls, letters, and visits, with no exceptions made for any extenuating circumstances.
Critics also argue that the clandestine nature of the Salvadoran government’s operation of CECOT is equally draconian. While the commissioner of the facility claims that the prisoners are treated with dignity, it should also be noted that the number of inmates, construction cost, contractors hired, and contract details of this mega prison project remain unknown—the information has been deemed “classified.” Additionally, the criteria for incarceration at CECOT has not been made public, and barring rare exceptions, reporters and news media outlets are seldom allowed inside the facility.
The Broader Implications
Despite the controversy associated with CECOT on both a national and international scale, many Salvadorans see the Bukele Government’s crackdown on crime as a success for the country. During an interview in May 2024, Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro told BBC News, “we have a commitment with the Salvadorans that [CECOT prisoners] will never return to the communities. And we are going to ensure we build the necessary cases [against them] to make sure they never return” He then added, “for us, CECOT represents the biggest monument to justice we have ever built. We don’t have anything to hide.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele seemed to double down on this position in May 2023 when he tweeted, “Let all the ‘human rights’ NGOs know that we are going to destroy these damn murderers and their collaborators, we will throw them in prison and they will never get out. We don’t care about their pitying reports, their prepaid journalists, their puppet politicians, nor their famous ‘international community’ that never cared about our people. We will heal our country and eliminate this plague for good. They can take their failed recipes somewhere else.”
However, this defiance on the part of the Bukele government has not silenced critics of his policies. In July 2024, Human Rights Watch published an official evaluation of the state of human rights in El Salvador. In it, the organization stated that since 2019, “key aspects of the country’s human rights record have deteriorated, as the government has systematically dismantled democratic institutions, restricted transparency and accountability, and created a hostile environment for journalists and civil society.” This finding was far from a rarity, as Amnesty International published a similar report stating that since 2022, “ongoing, widespread human rights violations, erosion of the rule of law, and criminalization of dissenting voices” have been rampant.
Dissenters also point to the disproportionately increasing prison population since the state of exception was implemented, which they argue often leads to the wrongful imprisonment of accused persons. José Duval Mata is one of these individuals. After being arrested under the guise of “illicit association,” a catch-all term used by the Salvadoran government, Mata’s mother attempted to bring documentation before authorities illustrating his innocence. Despite two separate rulings by the Salvadoran courts re-affirming Mata’s innocence, he has remained imprisoned inside CECOT for over two years.
Conclusions
The case of El Salvador raises interesting moral questions with regard to the role of government. Proponents of Bukele argue that his policies have made El Salvador one of the safest countries in the world. In 2015, El Salvador was considered the world’s homicide capital. Today, homicide rates in El Salvador are now the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Conversely, critics point to the fact that El Salvador now boasts the highest prison population per 100,000 citizens in the world with 1.7% of its adult populace currently incarcerated. Additionally, critics add that of the approximately 70,000 people who have been arrested since Bukele’s state of exception began, many are perceived to be innocent, subsequently leading to skepticism regarding the Salvadoran government’s willingness to provide its citizens adequate rights to due process.
CECOT, then, represents a critical component of El Salvador's struggle against gang violence, embodying both the challenges and complexities of the country's socio-political landscape. It begs the question: to what degree can and should a government infringe on the civil liberties of its citizens for the sake of security? While the establishment of a facility dedicated to confining violent offenders may seem like a necessary step in the fight against crime, it also raises significant ethical and human rights concerns that cannot be ignored.