The first 2,000 inmates arrive at El Savador's new mega-prison, where cells with just two toilets and 80 metal beds are designed to hold more than 100 people.
A new mega-prison in El Salvador, built to accommodate more than 40,000 suspected gangsters jailed as part of the president's "war" on crime, has seen the first 2,000 inmates arrive.The cells, of about 100 square metres, are designed to hold "more than 100" inmatesPresident Nayib Bukele's tweeted: "At dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism .
The president posted a video showing barefoot, tattooed men wearing only white boxers, bent over and with their hands behind their shaven heads. They are loaded onto buses, hands and feet in shackles, to be taken to the new prison in a convoy that included helicopters. "We are eliminating this cancer from society," Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said on Twitter.Built on Mr Bukele's orders after he declared a "war" on gangs last March, the prison in Tecoluca, 74 kilometres south-east of the capital San Salvador, consists of eight buildings made of reinforced concrete.Each one has 32 cells of about 100 square metres, designed to hold "more than 100" inmates, according to Public Works Minister Romeo Rodriguez.
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