Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/SAN SALVADOR: The El Salvador’s government has started transferring thousands of suspected gang members to a newly opened “mega-prison” in a crackdown on crime that caused the central American nation’s prison population to soar.
“This would be their new house, where they won’t be able to hurt the population more,” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said.
Around 2,000 alleged gang members were moved to the 40,000-capacity prison, considered to be the largest in the Americas.
In the video posted by Bukele, the prisoners stripped down to white shorts, with their heads shaved, are seen running through the latest prison into cells— many bearing gang tattoos.
Bukele asked El Salvador’s Congress to pass a ‘state of exception’, which has since been extended many times, that suspends some constitutional rights after the dramatic uptick in murders attributed to violent gangs.
Since then, more than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime dragnet. Arrests can be made without a warrant, local communications are accessible by the government, and the detainees no longer the right to a lawyer.
Human rights organizations have argued that innocent citizens had been caught up in the policy, including new dozens who have died in police custody. But Bukele’s anti-gang push remains widely famous with Salvadorans, and the country’s security minister said it would continue until all criminals were captured.
