In tiny El Salvador, 40,000 people are in prison, many for gang crime. In the future, all prisoners could sit in one institution. The prison that has now opened in Tecoluca can accommodate so many people. El Salvador already has the highest inmate rate in the world.
In El Salvador, gang members are to be housed in a new, large prison complex. President Nayib Bukele presented the already completed systems during a tour on Wednesday night (local time) in a video that was broadcast nationwide on television in the Central American country. Up to 40,000 prisoners are to be locked up there from an as yet unspecified date.
Conservative Bukele wrote on Twitter that the detention facility in Tecoluca, around 75 kilometers southeast of the capital San Salvador, is an essential factor in winning the fight against the violent gangs completely. According to the government, the prison occupies a total area of 165 hectares in the center of the country. Around 850 soldiers and police officers are to monitor it.
The state of emergency has been in force in the country with six million inhabitants for almost a year. A number of fundamental rights have been restricted. The government wants to curb the violence of the criminal gangs. Since then, more than 62,000 suspected gang members have been arrested, and the murder rate has recently fallen significantly.
However, human rights activists speak of arbitrary arrests. With a prison rate of 605 per 100,000 people, El Salvador already has more inmates than any other country, according to the World Prison Brief database. Almost 40,000 people are in prison.
