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STORY: :: El Salvador transfers around 2,000 inmates to a 'mega prison'

:: Salvadoran government handout

:: Tecoluca, El Salvador

:: Released June 11, 2024

Around 2,000 prisoners were moved to the 40,000-person-capacity prison, considered to be the largest in the Americas.

In a video posted by the government, prisoners stripped down to white shorts, with their heads shaved, are seen running through the new prison into cells. Many bear gang tattoos.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele asked his allies in El Salvador's Congress to pass a state of exception in 2022, which has since been extended several times, that suspends some constitutional rights after a dramatic spike 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, private communications are accessible by the government, and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer.

Human rights organizations argue that innocent people have been caught up in the policy, including at least dozens who have died in police custody.