2024-01-01 15:34:00
“No one leaves here; anyone who serves their sentence is immediately recaptured,” says Berlamino García.
Here It is Cecot, the acronym chosen for the Terrorism Confinement Center, but which on the streets of El Salvador is better known as Bukele’s megaprison.
And Belarmino García has been its director since They inaugurated this huge prisonless than 11 months ago.
Today is December 24, the sun is setting and in an hour I will be having rice and beans for dinner among gang members from criminal structures. Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Barrio 18-Sureños and Barrio 18-Revolucionarios, causing a spiral of violence that left thousands dead in the Central American country.
The visit was arranged with the Ministry of Communications to be able to share Christmas dinner with gang members first and with guards later.
But first, Belarmino will give me an express tour.
I have been entering penal centers in Central America for 15 years and this is definitely something else.
To begin with, its dimensions are colossal: 236,000 square meters, the equivalent of five times the Zócalo of Mexico City. Very few prisons in the world take up more space.
“The main wall is 9 meters high and another 3 meters of electrified fence; nothing more than 15,000 volts,” says Belarmino, with a hint of pride, “15,000 volts! Just by approaching there, you die from a single touch.”
Belarmino is short and folksy. He speaks with satisfaction of his 17 years in the General Directorate of Penal Centers of El Salvador, and of his brilliant career.
“I come from an agent,” he says.
Now he directs “this monster”, with a thousand people under his command, not counting the 250 police officers deployed and the 600 soldiers who guard the perimeter.
Getty ImagesEl Cecot is one of Nayib Bukele’s great projects.
A huge construction
A year and a half ago, the site where this cement mass was built – in Tecoluca, department of San Vicente – was farmland on the slopes of the Chichontepec volcano.
Located about 70 kilometers from the capital, San Salvador, since its inauguration it has been surrounded by controversy and secrecy, and reports of abuse, isolation, torture and deaths from beatings.
President Nayib Bukele Bukele referred to her on social network (formerly Twitter) as “the most criticized prison in the world”and in recent weeks some local and international media have been allowed group entry.
Visiting it at Christmas is a rarity.
Bukele himself – praised by large sectors of his country for his achievements in security – announced at the time that Cecot will be able to accommodate “40,000 terrorists, who will be cut off from the outside world”, a fairly large figure for a country like El Salvador, with just 6.3 million inhabitants.
For comparison, the Marmara prison in Turkey, near Istanbul, is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the most populated in the world: 22,781 inmates in November 2019, but it occupies almost twice the space of the Salvadoran prison, and It was designed to house about 11,000 people.
But Turkey has 85 million and the other countries with megaprisons listed in the Guinness Book of Records are the United States and India, with populations of 340 million and 1.4 billion inhabitants respectively.
Secretariat of CommunicationsAerial image of the Terrorism Confinement Center, popularly known as the Bukele megaprison.
The truth is that, today, almost 11 months after the inauguration, there are just over 12,000 inmates, less than a third. Because?
“They are the security strategies of the authorities; they determine when and at what time the transfers are made,” Belarmino responds evasive.
A dinner like every day
Bukele’s megaprison has eight gigantic modules –eight independent prisons, in the words of Belarmino–, of which six are occupied by in emesis y eighteenth-century.
In the other two there are prisoners in confidence phase, who are not gang members nor are they on trial for serious crimes, and who work in the maintenance and cleaning of the premises; For every eight hours worked they reduce their sentence by two days.
After walking 800 meters from the access gate, we arrive at Module 3, located in the northeast corner of the rectangle that is the Cecot. It’s a few minutes after 6 pm and it’s already night outside.
When you enter the ship they are serving dinner.
Roberto ValenciaInterns pick up their dinner and coffee this December 24th.
The gang members do not leave their cells, nothing to do with the commonplace to which Hollywood has accustomed us, of crowded dining rooms in which fights and settling of scores occur.
The food is provided by a company, three times a day.
Inmates in the trust phase ration it in another sector of the prison and deliver a container and a plastic cup for each inmate through the bars.
I thought that, because it was such an important date, the menu would have some concessions, but authorities and gang members told me no.
We will eat a handful of tasteless rice, a broth made from beans and two thin corn tortillas, the kind used for tacos. As a drink, a weak coffee.
They eat the same thing every day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only alteration – Belarmino tells me and the Paisa of 18-Sureños will later confirm – is that the rice is replaced by spaghetti.
Roberto ValenciaThe menu is the same as any other day: rice, beans and two corn tortillas.
Once a month, family members can send packages with some food products from a list prepared by Penal Centers: sugar, oatmeal, milk and powdered supplements, vitamins…
But, among gang members, the percentage of inmates who have a family that supports them is the lowest. “In Cecot, less than half,” says Bellarmine.
The lack of animal protein and other nutrients is taking its toll.
I will interview six inmates at length tonight, face to face, and tomorrow I will find photographs taken at the time of their arrest on the Internet or even in their abandoned Facebook accounts: Weight loss will be evident.
News about Messi
Roberto ValenciaSecurity agents search the inmates of cell 2 of Module 3, those chosen to have dinner with journalist Roberto Valencia.
Although this Christmas Eve dinner was going to be like any other day, my presence has altered things a little.
Under a strict security cordon, with guards equipped as riot police, the inmates of a cell have been let out to the wide central corridor, without shackles, to sit lined up in five rows of 16.
I have been able to choose among the 30 cells of the module, cell 2, and I have also been able to select the gang members to interview.
Many have been there for months. Before dinner, I introduced myself and, to break the ice and generate some trust, We have talked about worldly matters.
Nobody here knew that Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami will come to El Salvador in January, a hot topic abroad since it was confirmed at the end of November.
I have been asked which clubs triumphed this year in the Champions League and the Libertadores, and about the winners of the last two local soccer tournaments.
Robert Valencia
After a prayer in an evangelical key that a 18 prisoner tattooed from head to toe shouted, dinner began.
I have sat down to eat next to the Paisa, an active gang member from Barrio 18-Sureños who will turn 30 tomorrow, Christmas Day. He looks jovial, even grateful for the conversation.
It is not common for them to be able to talk to people who come from abroad.
We eat the tasteless mixture of rice and beans without utensils, using pieces of tortilla as a spoon. Needless to say, I’m the clumsiest.
The life inside
El Paisa is Luis Alonso García Floresfrom El Refugio, department of Ahuachapán.
Since 2017 serving a sentence for murder and he has never received a visit or a phone call, prohibited since March 2016 in prisons that house only gang members.
They haven’t been allowed to leave the cell for several days, he tells me.
Roberto ValenciaLuis Alonso García Flores, el Paisa, gang member of Barrio 18-Sureños; He is convicted of murder.
Before, they had occasional outings to the hallway for Bible reading and physical stretching programs, taught by inmates in a trusting phase, “but in December the programs are suspended, they have already ended,” Belarmino will later tell me.
At Cecot there are no training workshops and they do not allow you to enter a novel.
“The truth is that we would like to have even a small library to spend reading during the day,” Paisa tells me.
I will ask him and the other people interviewed what’s going on in their heads on a day as unique as December 24th.
El Paisa answers me this: “The wish of every prisoner, to be able to be with the family, at least receive a visit this day. I have a daughter, Lucero, who turned 13 on December 14; only by faith do I know that she is still alive “.
His words are repeated.
Originally from El Congo (Santa Ana), Salvador Alberto Jovel Servando39, is an asset in the Western Locos clique of MS-13.
After a life of entering and leaving prisons in the United States and El Salvador, the last time he lost his freedom was in November 2021. He has not yet been sentenced.
“I would like to be able to see my daughter, who just turned 6 years old. Her name is Allison Yamilteh and, honestly, I hope someone can dress up as Santa Claus and give her the gift she doesn’t have from her dad,” says.
Alberto Ramirez Torres is the Chogüi in the 18-Sureños tribe that operated –Opera? While the government assures that it ended the gangs, there are those who say that vestiges remain– in the Altavista residential area, in Ilopango.
He was arrested on April 22, 2022, when the emergency regime still in force in El Salvador took his first steps. He has not been convicted either.
“I want to tell my daughter Naomy that I love her very much, that everything is a matter of time, and that in the name of Christ Jesus, what I am saying to you right now, one day I am going to say it to her in person. And I wish all the Salvadoran people a Merry Christmas,” she says.
Roberto ValenciaJosé Leonardo Chicas Cortés was an MS-13 gang member in the United States; He is awaiting trial.
José Leonardo Chicas Cortés He is 43 years old but looks at least a decade older. He is from Sensuntepeque, Cabañas, and lived for decades in the United States. He claims that he left the gang years ago, when he was deported. He was arrested on May 3, 2022 in Honduras, deported and is still awaiting trial.
“I haven’t spoken to my mother, my wife, my son in almost two years… I send greetings to my mother, whose name is María Cortés,” he shares.
Luis Alberto Paredes He is the Miñaña of the 18-Revolucionarios. He is 39 years old, is from the Concepción neighborhood of San Salvador and commits crimes in the La Tiendona market area. Since May 2008 he has been serving a 65-year sentence for aggravated homicide.
“My last free Christmas was in 2007, and since 2016 I have not been able to see my family or my daughters; I believe in God and he has the last word,” he says.
Williams Arnoldo Vasquez Carpio He is Angel Black, a palabrero from the 18-Sureños clique that operated – operates? – in San Martín, east of the capital. He was arrested on June 29, 2022 and is awaiting trial.
“I want to send greetings to my entire family, especially my mother, my brothers, my entire family in general, that they continue to persevere and that I thank them for all their help; and I want to tell my daughters that I love them very much and that I take them always in the heart,” he says.
And the gang victims? Is there no message for them?I ask him. “No, I don’t know there…” he stammers.
Roberto ValenciaLuis Alberto Paredes, Miñaña, gang member of Barrio 18-Revolucionarios; He is convicted of aggravated murder.
The figures and the controversy
The existence and dizzying construction of the Bukele megaprison – it was literally built out of nowhere in just over eight months – is a direct consequence of the emergency regime in force since March 2022, and which has allowed the capture of almost 75,000 alleged gang members. .
It is a number that is questioned by family members and human rights organizations who claim that there are thousands of innocent people imprisoned who had no relationship with the gangs.
But under that same legal tool – the exception regime –, The government has dealt the gangs an unprecedented blow.
According to its own figures, the National Civil Police recorded 147 homicides until December 17 of this year.
Roberto ValenciaThis is what the cells of the Bukele megaprison look like from the inside; They have 80 cots in four heights, metal and without mattresses or bedding.
Adjusted to the guidelines of the Bogotá Protocolwhich establishes a series of technical criteria whose compliance reflects that homicide data in Latin America and the Caribbean present a high degree of validity, reliability and transparency, the figure rises to 204.
Little changes.
The homicide rate in 2023 will be 3 per 100,000 inhabitants. Just eight years ago, in 2015, El Salvador recorded 6,656 murders, a rate of 106 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The indicators of crimes traditionally related to gangs, such as the disappearance of people, femicides or extortion, have also fallen to historic lows.
The security paradox
After having dinner with the gang members, I asked to talk to guards.
There were a hundred of them – and them – in a dining room so large that they looked scattered. They ate roast beef, sausages, shrimp, various salads and French fries.
I sat with five of them – I also chose the table – and asked their opinion about how they and their families live now.
Getty Images There are currently 12,000 inmates in the Cecot.
Due to the low salaries of security agents, they generally live in the same neighborhoods and cantons that have been under the control of MS-13 or 18 for decades.
They have accepted my conversation under the condition of do not take photos or publish names or places of residence.
“This gang thing is very changeable,” one justifies me. “The gangs have not been completely exterminated, there are still gang members”adds his partner.
But the change for the better experienced with the emergency regime is expressed unanimously and enthusiastically.
They say that now they can arrive at 9 at night without fear, that in their neighborhoods new stores have opened or existing ones have been expanded. That the delivery men now enter. They say their mothers and wives sleep more peacefully.
They say, in short, that the reduction in violence can be felt, breathed, that it goes beyond cold numbers on homicide rates that can be read from a computer or smartphone.
That is the paradox that Salvadoran society is experiencing these days on the issue of public security.
The same emergency regime that has cut short the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people and their families represents a blessing for hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, perhaps millions.
It is a reality that inside and outside prison continues to divide people and families in what became the most violent country in the world.
BBC
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