Terrorism Confinement Center
The Terrorism Confinement Center is a maximum security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The prison was built in late 2022 amid a large-scale gang crackdown in the country. The Salvadoran government opened the prison in late January 2023, and it began housing inmates the following month.
, CECOT had a confirmed population of 14,532inmates; in November 2024, prison director Belarmino García estimated that CECOT held between 15,000 and 20,000 inmates. With a capacity for 40,000inmates, CECOT is the largest prison in Latin America and one of the largest in the world by prisoner capacity. In March 2025, the Salvadoran government accepted over 200deportees that the second Donald Trump administration alleged were Venezuelan and Salvadoran gang members and incarcerated them in CECOT. Among them was Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case received widespread media attention in the United States. The Venezuelans incarcerated in CECOT were repatriated to Venezuela in July 2025 following a prisoner swap involving El Salvador, the United States, and Venezuela.
CECOT is controversial, receiving praise for its detention of alleged gang members and criticism for alleged human rights abuses, including overcrowding, lack of due process, and inhumane conditions. CECOT does not engage in rehabilitation. Few inmates have been released from the facility and authorities have said in media statements that there are no plans to release any other prisoners.
The Salvadoran government has allowed selected media outlets access to participate in guided tours of the prison, while others such as United States senator Chris Van Hollen have been denied access. CECOT has been featured in several videos and documentaries published online, including in inmate intake videos published by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele and documentaries such as 60 Minutes "Inside CECOT".
Background
Gang violence in El Salvador
Beginning in the 1990s, street gangs began to gain power and influence in El Salvador when their members began to be deported from the United States following the conclusion of the Salvadoran Civil War. The two largest street gangs were Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang ; other smaller gangs included La Maquina, Mao Mao, and Mirada Loca. In El Salvador, these gangs recruited young Salvadorans who felt neglected by the Salvadoran government in the aftermath of the civil war. By 2020, there were an estimated 60,000gang members and 400,000collaborators in El Salvador.Gangs enforced their influence and made money through murder, extortion, drug trafficking, and operating businesses. Gangs also influenced national politics by preventing political candidates from campaigning in certain neighborhoods under their control, and gang leaders have stated that they could determine the outcomes of elections. Due to gang violence, El Salvador had one of the highest homicide rates in the world, peaking at a rate of 103 homicides per 100,000people in 2015.
Anti-crime policies
During the 1990s and 2000s, the various Nationalist Republican Alliance governments sought to implement "tough on crime" policies in El Salvador to combat the spread of gangs. In 2003 and 2004, the government implemented the La Mano Dura and Super Mano Dura policies that led to the arrests of 30,000alleged gang members. In 2012, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front government, the Catholic Church in El Salvador, and the country's gangs agreed to a truce that initially lowered the country's homicide rate, but by 2014, the truce had faltered and homicides rose again. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador designated both MS-13 and Barrio 18 as terrorist organizations.From 2019 to 2020, El Salvador's homicide rate decreased by up to 62percent. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele credited the decrease to his Territorial Control Plan, but a 2020 analysis by the International Crisis Group found "no causal relationship" between the decrease in homicides and the Territorial Control Plan. Instead, the ICG attributed the decrease to "quiet, informal understandings between gangs and the government"; the Salvadoran government denied the claim. In December 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury accused Bukele's government of negotiating with the gangs to reduce homicides; Bukele denied the accusation.
Salvadoran gang crackdown
From 25 to 27 March 2022, gangs in El Salvador killed 87people, 62 of whom were killed on 26 March alone, the deadliest day in Salvadoran history since the end of the civil war in 1992. Florida International University research director José Miguel Cruz attributed the murder spike to the breakdown of the alleged truce between gangs and the government.In response to the violence, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador declared a state of exception that suspended several constitutional rights and made it easier for the country's security forces to conduct mass arrests of suspected gang members. In the following seven months, around 55,000suspected gang members were arrested. Due to the large number of arrests, Bukele announced the construction of a new prison with a capacity for 40,000inmates—named the Terrorism Confinement Center —to house those arrested during the gang crackdown. CECOT was built by three companies and construction cost US$100million. By the time CECOT opened in January 2023, the Salvadoran government had arrested over 62,000suspected gang members.
Prison facility
The CECOT facility covers and the Salvadoran government oversees the surrounding around the prison. It is located in the district of Tecoluca in a remote area of the San Vicente Department at the base of the San Vicente volcano. Cecot has the capacity for 40,000inmates in eight cell blocks; cell space covers for an average of of space per prisoner. In April 2025, Bukele stated that he intended to double CECOT's capacity to 80,000 inmates. The prison is surrounded by 19guard towers, two sets of and walls, topped with barbed wire, two sets of electrified fences, and gravel flooring designed to make footsteps audible.Each of the 256cells can house an average of 156inmates. The cells are equipped with four-level metal bunks with no mattresses or sheets, two toilets, and two washbasins. The cells are lit by artificial lights 24 hours per day. Each cell is provided with two Bibles, and CCTV cameras and armed guards monitor each cell. Solitary confinement cells can hold prisoners for up to 15days and are only furnished with a concrete bed, a toilet, and a washbasin. The solitary cells are pitch black except for one small hole in the ceiling that allows some light inside.
Cecot is staffed by 600soldiers and 250police officers. Belarmino García is the prison's director. Prison staff are provided recreational areas such as a dining hall, break room, and gym. Everyone entering the prison undergoes a physical search and an X-ray scan. Medical staff are present on site and administer all aid to prisoners within the prison's confines.
Inmates
The Salvadoran government rarely announces how many prisoners are incarcerated at Cecot, with only a few such public announcements since the prison opened. Cecot had a reported population of 14,532inmates in June 2024. In November 2024, García estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000inmates were housed at Cecot. In March 2025, a government spokesperson declined to provide an updated figure, citing security concerns, but said that the 2024 statistic of 14,500 inmates was outdated. In April 2025, García stated the population was closer to its 40,000 maximum population, but declined to give a specific number.The criteria for becoming incarcerated in Cecot are unclear, other than that the Salvadoran government states that it houses "high-ranking" gang members. Members of rival gangs are not separated. García has described those imprisoned at Cecot as "the worst of the worst". Many inmates have been sentenced to centuries-long sentences, while other inmates have yet to be convicted. Those detained are reported to have been tried en masse with no opportunity to present counter-evidence or see the evidence against them.
Prisoners wear all-white uniforms and their heads are shaved every five days. Prisoners are only allowed outside their cells for 30minutes of exercise, Bible study, online court hearings within the prison, or for placement into solitary confinement. Prisoners are not allowed education, recreation, visitation, or phone calls. Prisoners are provided meals of rice, beans, eggs, and pasta, but utensils are not provided as they could potentially become weapons. The Salvadoran government does not plan to release any prisoner from Cecot, and Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro has stated that prisoners incarcerated at Cecot will never return to their communities. Villatoro also ruled out rehabilitation programs for Cecot's inmates.
Detention of foreign prisoners
On 3 February 2025, Bukele met with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and offered to accept "dangerous American criminals" and incarcerate them at Cecot "in exchange for a fee". Rubio described Bukele's offer as the "most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world".On 15 March 2025, the United States announced that it would deport 300alleged gang members of Tren de Aragua to El Salvador to be imprisoned in CECOT without trial, using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. According to El Salvador's, the Donald Trump administration will pay the Salvadoran government US$6million to hold the 300prisoners for one year "pending the United States' decision on their long term disposition". James Boasberg, the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, blocked the deportations from proceeding, but 238 alleged Tren de Aragua members and 23 alleged MS-13 members were deported regardless. One of the three deportation flights departed the United States after Boasberg blocked the deportations, causing controversy over whether the Trump administration ignored a court order. According to Time, prisoners were physically bludgeoned and had their heads forcibly shaved during their processing. A 60 Minutes investigation failed to find any criminal charges against 179 of those deported, while about a dozen had been charged with crimes such as murder, rape, assault, or kidnapping.
Bukele published a three-minute video to X showing the prisoners' arrival. The Venezuelan government condemned the deportation, and Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, stated that the government would "not rest until they rescue the kidnapped in El Salvador". An anonymous source within the United States Department of State said that it feared the deported Venezuelans could die in Cecot.
File:Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Ábrego García.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Ábrego García talking at a table|U.S. senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the 261 people deported by the U.S. to El Salvador and incarcerated in Cecot in mid March 2025
United States secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem visited Cecot on 26 March 2025 and threatened illegal immigrants in the United States with deportation to El Salvador and incarceration in Cecot if they did not leave the country. The U.S. deported 17 more people to El Salvador on 31 March, alleging that they were MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. The U.S. government stated that the deportations occurred using regular immigration laws and not the Alien Enemies Act.
On 7 April, the Supreme Court of the United States lifted Boasberg's order, allowing the Trump administration to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport people from the country but only after they had been given a court hearing on the matter. In a meeting between Trump and Bukele at the Oval Office on 14 April, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Trump was interested in deporting "heinous, violent criminals" who were American citizens to El Salvador; Cato Institute immigration expert David Bier stated that "U.S. citizens may not be deported to imprisonment abroad. There is no authority for that in any U.S. law." Trump further suggested to Bukele that he should "build about five more places" like Cecot.
Among the prisoners deported to El Salvador was Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was initially incarcerated at Cecot; his case received widespread media attention in the United States as he had been deported due to an "administrative error". In April 2025, U.S. senator Chris Van Hollen met Abrego Garcia, who informed him that he had been transferred to another prison in Santa Ana. Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen that he "experienced trauma" while in Cecot. After the meeting, Bukele wrote on X that Abrego Garcia would remain in Salvadoran custody. In June 2025 Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S., after being charged with human smuggling and accused of numerous other crimes that had not previously been alleged; a court later found that there was "no credible evidence". After his return, his attorneys filed legal documents claiming he had been subjected to "severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture" in Cecot. Bukele disputed this claim, publishing videos and images of Abrego Garcia participating in prisoner programs after he had left Cecot and asking "If he'd been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?"
On 20 April 2025, Bukele offered to conduct a prisoner exchange with the Venezuelan government, offering to repatriate the 252 Venezuelans sent to Cecot by the U.S. in exchange for the Venezuelan government releasing 252 "political prisoners". Venezuelan attorney general Tarek William Saab demanded "proof of life and a medical report" of each Venezuelan. On 18 July 2025, the American, Salvadoran, and Venezuelan governments conducted a prisoner swap. All the Venezuelans incarcerated in Cecot were released and returned to Venezuela in exchange for the release of ten Americans in Venezuelan custody.
After their release from Cecot, the Venezuelan detainees described abuses in media interviews and exchanges with their lawyers including repeated beatings, being shot with rubber bullets, constant light, depravation of hygiene materials, and poor food and water. Saab announced that the Venezuelan government would investigate Bukele, Villatoro, and General Director of Penal Centers Osiris Luna Meza claiming that there had been "systemic torture" of the Venezuelans detained in Cecot.