The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has defended the construction of a new prison with the capacity to hold some 40,000 inmates and has stated that this mega-construction, erected in just seven months, «is a fundamental piece to completely win the war against gangs».
Bukele has made the fight against these groups one of his main government mantras, to the point that he no longer hesitates to call El Salvador «the safest country in America», as a result of the reduction in the homicide rate.
«How did we achieve this? By putting criminals in jail. Is there room? Now there is,» said the president, in a series of messages on Twitter in which he assured that the inmates of this new Terrorism Confinement Center will not be able to escape or «give orders from inside». «A work of common sense,» he added.
The Salvadoran government has defended these facilities against criticism from organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), which considers that the center does not comply with international United Nations regulations on the treatment of prisoners.
The exception regime decreed in El Salvador in March 2022 to combat the wave of homicides has also generated doubts from international observers, for allegedly giving wings to excesses by the authorities.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
