The Trump administration continues to attack many of our basic rights. Trump has looked admiringly to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, particularly in light of the usage of the notorious mega-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). As it stands now, the U.S. has already sent hundreds of immigrants to CECOT without trial and suggested sending U.S. citizens. We must be alarmed by the threat of anyone being sent to a mega-prison that the world knows little about.
Efforts to learn about the financing behind CECOT only revealed that it cost over $135 million to build, and nearly $200 million to maintain every year. So far, it’s known that the U.S. is providing financial support to the prison system by paying Bukele’s government $6 million. Our taxpayer money is being used to fund barbaric prison conditions. The mega-prison built in just seven months can hold around 40,000 people, with each of its 256 cells having a capacity of 156 prisoners. Prisoners are being packed like sardines, with no space, privacy, mattress, adequate meals, windows, nor communication with the outside world. Family members and lawyers have reported being barred from seeing any captive.
El Salvador is a country that has been devastated by imperialism, which has created the conditions for extreme poverty and gang violence. Despite initial overwhelming support for Bukele—many in El Salvador were happy about the decrease in violence and misled to believe that the CECOT was a sustainable path forward— but some brave Salvadorians are sounding the alarm, demanding answers from the Salvadorian government on their missing relatives. The increased police presence across the country is growing concern, with some fearing going outside and getting falsely accused of being gang-affiliated. Human rights organizations have been warning of major human rights violations. The fact that anyone can be targeted, disappeared and thrown in jail, especially without a trial, should be terrifying to all of us.
The mega-prison cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and maintain and has a major human cost. As the risk of being targeted and locked away grows with heavy surveillance, we are seeing cracks to people’s initial support for CECOT and Bukele’s reactionary agenda. From inside the prison walls and outside, in the United States, El Salvador and beyond, we must show resistance against the mega-prison and worsening attacks on our rights.
