That's Life(C’est la vie) CECOT

Gang members inside their cell as they prepare to be transferred so that guards at the CECOT (Terrorist Confinement Center), which houses between 15,000 and 20,000 inmates, can conduct a thorough search.

A gang member is told to run back to his cell after a routine check-up at the CECOT – Terrorism Confinement Center.

Inmates doing an exercise routine inside a cell block at the CECOT – Terrorism Confinement Center as they only get 45 minutes outside their cell.

Gang members take showers at the crack of dawn, they are allowed to do this everyday for 45 minutes or until the water well is empty.

Holliday decorations at the Mega-Prison CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Center) which is a maximum security prison which houses between 15,000 and 20,000 inmates.

A Mara Salvatrucha – MS13 gang member grabs food containers to distribute them inside the cell block, they are fed a very basic meal– an egg, beans and tortillas with a drink of either coffee or mush.

The gang members of the three major gangs sleep on metal “bunk beads and are only give a sheet to cover themselves, they are not give mattresses.

Gang members inside a cell at the CECOT – Terrorism Confinement Center (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) which has capacity for 40,000 inmates but as of now it houses between 15,000 and 20,000 inmates.

Gangs members show he inside of there mouth as a security measure as the prison guards prepare to do thorough search at the CECOT.

Gang members having their meal, they are fed a very basic meal– an egg, beans and tortillas with a drink of either coffee or mush.

The Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) — a mega-prison that houses inmates of El Salvador’s three major gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Barrio 18 Revolucionarios and Barrio 18 Sureños– is the largest prison in the Western Hemisphere. Built in a record-breaking span of 6 months, this maximum security prison can house forty-thousand inmates, part of the war-on-gangs launched by President Nayib Bukele who has been praised for ending gang violence and bringing security to his country. This is a rare look at the inside of the prison that has become the eye of the media storm since President Trump’s administration deported more than 200 Venezuelan citizens, accused of being part of the Tren De Aragua criminal organization, there this spring.

Since in March 2022, when the country’s gangs launched a three-day murder spree, El Salvador has incarcerated about 2% of the country’s population under an ongoing “State of Exception.” President Bukele has been widely-criticized for the suspension of civil liberties that accompanied the crackdown and reports of related abuses. But he’s also been credited with a reduction in violence and sense of improved security.

Capital punishment is not a legal penalty in El Salvador– it was abolished in 1983. For this reason, El Salvador is one of seven countries considered “Abolitionist for Ordinary Crimes,” along with Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Guatemala, Israel, and Peru. The gang members in this facility have long jail sentences, ranging from 80 to 1,400 years or more. They have been the masterminds and perpetrators of atrocious crimes committed during their reign. The gang members inside this facility were already in serving prison sentences in other penitentiaries. Here they sleep on metal flats with no mattress and are only given a thin white sheet to cover themselves. At the crack of dawn, they are awoken and allowed to shower. They dry themselves with either the bedsheet or their shorts, then they are fed a very basic meal– an egg, beans and tortillas with a drink of either coffee or mush. Following a roll call and strict security measure– checking the inside of their mouths and handcuffs with belly chains– they proceed to their daily routine which may consist of exercise or worship. After dinner, they are forced to sleep under the facility’s lights, which are never turned off, and the watchful eye of the guards. This is the life of the gang members who used to terrorize the Salvadoran society, C’EST LA VIE CECOT.