Reuters
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El Salvador’s authorities moved hundreds of suspected gang members to a newly opened “mega prison” on Friday, the newest step in a controversial crackdown on crime that has triggered the Central American nation’s jail inhabitants to soar.
“This will be their new home, where they won’t be able to do any more harm to the population,” President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.
Around 2,000 accused gang members have been moved to the 40,000-person-capacity jail, thought of to be the biggest within the Americas, early Friday morning.
In a video posted by Bukele, prisoners stripped all the way down to white shorts, with their heads shaved, are seen working via the brand new jail into cells. Many bear gang tattoos.
Bukele requested his allies in El Salvador’s Congress to move a state of exception final 12 months, which has since been prolonged a number of instances, that suspends some constitutional rights after a dramatic spike in murders attributed to violent gangs.
Since then, greater than 64,000 suspects have been arrested within the anti-crime dragnet. Arrests may be made and not using a warrant, non-public communications are accessible by the federal government, and detainees not have the best to a lawyer.
Human rights organizations argue that harmless individuals have been caught up within the coverage, together with at the very least dozens who’ve died in police custody.
But Bukele’s anti-gang push stays broadly in style with Salvadorans, and the nation’s safety minister informed Reuters it might proceed till all criminals are captured.
Source: www.cnn.com