Foreign Correspondent on ABC and ABC iview S34E20 El Salvador’s mega prison – Violent gang wars in El Salvador have earned the central American nation the label of “the most dangerous country in the world”.
But President Nayib Bukele had a solution: declare a ruthless war on the gangs and lock up their members in the world’s biggest and toughest prison.
This week Foreign Correspondent presents a rare look inside El Salvador’s mega prison, a state-of-the-art correctional centre capable of housing up to 40,000 prisoners.
Known as CECOT (Centre for the confinement of Terrorism) the inmates are crammed into communal cells in extremely harsh conditions. Critics call the prison a “black hole of human rights” and there’s concern many detainees are not gang members but innocent people who are the victims of a police arrest quota system.
But the El Salvadoran government remains steadfast, proudly presenting its mega prison to the world as it continues to wage its war on crime.
Foreign Correspondent on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 5 September at 8.00pm.
Media Release – ABC
TV Central ABC content HERE
Foreign Correspondent on ABC and ABC iview S34E20 El Salvador’s mega prison
