CECOT: El Salvador’s Prison of No Return
An Urgent Warning About the Human Cost of Authoritarianism and U.S. Complicity
In this insight, we examine El Salvador's CECOT, a prison designed explicitly for permanent incarceration of individuals labeled as dangerous criminals or gang members. The United States has already started deporting detainees directly to CECOT and is openly considering deporting American citizens next.
If you haven't already, please also read Disposable People: We Are Not Safe to understand the broader context and recent developments.
We must keep our eyes open—and firmly reject complicity in these unfolding human rights violations.
When Andry Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old Venezuelan makeup artist fleeing persecution for his sexuality, stepped off a deportation flight from the United States onto a hot runway in El Salvador, he had no idea where he was going. Shackled and terrified, Andry pleaded that his tattoos, small crowns inscribed with "mom" and "dad," were tributes to his parents, not gang symbols. Guards ignored him, shaved his head, beat him, and threw him into CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, a massive mega-prison in rural Tecoluca.
Andry’s story isn't isolated—it represents a chilling new chapter in authoritarian repression, enabled by U.S. complicity and executed by President Nayib Bukele’s government. This report is an attempt to pierce the deliberate silence surrounding CECOT, revealing the horrifying reality inside.
Trump and Bukele’s Troubling Alliance
In early 2025, the Trump administration quietly partnered with Bukele’s government, deporting hundreds of detainees directly to CECOT under the obscure Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law unused since World War II. Of the 238 men Trump sent to CECOT, 179 had no criminal record whatsoever; no criminal history, either in the U.S. or abroad. Many detainees, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, had explicit judicial protection from deportation due to credible threats of violence and torture specifically in El Salvador.
Yet ICE deported them anyway, broadly labeling detainees as "foreign threats" or "enemy combatants," citing vague national security concerns despite the absence of credible evidence, criminal allegations, or due process.
Historically, the Alien Enemies Act was used exclusively during declared wartime against hostile foreign nationals, not asylum seekers fleeing persecution during peacetime. This unprecedented expansion marks a dangerous and radical reinterpretation of a law previously considered a relic of wartime past.
Bukele publicly welcomed the arrangement, openly offering to incarcerate even American citizens abroad, an unprecedented and dangerous step condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and numerous governments globally.
The partnership between Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele isn't simply political convenience, it's ideological alignment. Both leaders rose to power by positioning themselves as populist outsiders, leveraging deep public disillusionment with existing political systems. Each effectively used social media to bypass traditional media channels, crafting narratives directly with their supporters, and openly dismissing democratic checks and balances.
Key parallels include:
Populist Outsiders: Trump and Bukele both gained political traction by promising bold, decisive action to combat perceived crises with Trump targeting immigration and crime and Bukele focusing on gang violence.
Social Media & Information Control: Both rely on aggressive use of social media, circumventing traditional journalism, tightly controlling information, and branding independent media as adversaries. Bukele, for example, routinely announces major policy moves on Twitter first, ensuring he shapes initial narratives unchallenged by independent reporting.
Manufacturing and Exploiting Fear: Trump invoked "invasions" at the border and rising crime; Bukele declared gang violence a national emergency, using fear to justify extraordinary expansions of executive power.
Weakening Democratic Institutions: Each systematically undermined legislative and judicial oversight: Bukele notably deploying armed soldiers into El Salvador’s legislature, Trump openly defying court orders and checks on executive authority.
Celebrating Harsh Punitive Measures: Both leaders explicitly endorse brutal measures: Trump praising harsh border enforcement and deportations without due process, Bukele openly celebrating indefinite incarceration and abusive conditions in CECOT.
CECOT is the physical embodiment of this troubling alliance—an authoritarian laboratory where the shared ideological goals of Trump and Bukele converge in brutal reality.
CECOT Intent & Life Inside
Bukele unveiled CECOT in early 2023 as "the largest prison in the Americas," a cornerstone of his aggressive anti-gang campaign. Bukele publicly declared detainees, whom he broadly labels “terrorists,” would “never return,” reflecting the prison's explicit purpose: permanent incapacitation rather than justice or rehabilitation.
Rapidly constructed without transparency, CECOT was designed explicitly as a rejection of human rights norms, a chilling emblem of authoritarian power signaling Bukele’s intent to prioritize order over human dignity.
Daily life inside CECOT is intentionally brutal and designed to break detainees physically and psychologically:
Extreme overcrowding: Cells regularly hold 80–100 prisoners, more than twice their intended capacity, forcing detainees to sleep standing up or in shifts on bare concrete or metal slats, often pressed shoulder-to-shoulder.
Permanent confinement: Prisoners spend 23.5 hours per day locked inside overcrowded cells, with only 30 minutes allowed daily for tightly controlled corridor exercise. There is no outdoor time or access to fresh air.
Constant surveillance and lighting: Cells are monitored continuously by CCTV and illuminated by fluorescent lights 24 hours a day, severely disrupting sleep cycles and psychological well-being.
Isolation and silence: No family visits, phone calls, or letters permitted. Prisoners endure enforced silence and minimal human interaction, leading to severe psychological deterioration; some prisoners reportedly lose the ability to speak.
Juveniles housed with adults: Teenage detainees as young as 16 are routinely incarcerated alongside hardened adult gang members, dramatically increasing their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
Severe hygiene deprivation: Cells feature only two toilets and two sinks for upwards of 100 prisoners, with constant filth and disease outbreaks, including tuberculosis, scabies, fungal infections, and gastrointestinal illnesses.
Intentional starvation: Meals typically consist of minimal portions of rice and beans, provided without utensils. Water is severely restricted, shared sparingly among cellmates, leading to widespread malnutrition and deaths.
Medical neglect and denial of care: No external medical treatment is allowed under any circumstances. Inmates suffering critical illnesses or injuries are denied appropriate care, often dying from easily treatable conditions or guard-inflicted injuries.
Absolute lack of accountability: Independent human rights inspections are routinely denied. Guards operate anonymously in balaclavas, heightening prisoners' fear and ensuring zero accountability for abuses committed within CECOT.
These conditions, thoroughly documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Cristosal, and other human rights observers, clearly demonstrate deliberate, state-sanctioned cruelty at CECOT.
Stories from Inside: A Glimpse into El Salvador's Prisons
First-hand accounts specifically from inside CECOT remain exceptionally rare—by design. Bukele explicitly stated detainees will "never return," ensuring survivor testimonies remain scarce.
However, reports emerging from El Salvador’s broader prison system under Bukele's crackdown provide harrowing glimpses into the systemic cruelty detainees face—conditions that human rights organizations strongly believe are mirrored or intensified inside CECOT itself:
Systematic physical torture: Prisoners frequently face beatings, humiliation, prolonged kneeling, simulated drowning, and forced submersion in ice water. Violence is routine, particularly upon arrival and as punishment for perceived infractions.
Death and disappearance: Over 350 people have died in custody across Salvadoran prisons, including CECOT, with many showing clear signs of torture, strangulation, and severe malnutrition. Autopsies reveal untreated injuries and deaths caused by deliberate medical neglect. Deaths are not officially reported and families have filed complaints after finding loved ones in mass graves.
Juan José Ibáñez García: A 21-year-old restaurant worker arrested without explanation. Within two weeks, he died mysteriously in custody. Authorities never justified his arrest or explained his death. Juan José simply "disappeared."
Vilma Mancía: A 65-year-old grandmother now raising six grandchildren alone after both her adult children, innocent of gang affiliations, were arrested during mass roundups and imprisoned indefinitely without trial. "I don't know what to do," she told reporters. "Nobody helps me, not even to find food."
Salvadoran officials openly admit innocent people caught in mass arrests are considered acceptable collateral, their suffering a routine consequence of Bukele’s deliberate policy of mass incarceration. Human rights groups caution that such documented abuses from other Salvadoran prisons strongly indicate the realities faced by detainees inside CECOT, widely regarded as the epicenter of Bukele’s authoritarian approach.
Bukele’s government insists CECOT houses only dangerous criminals, yet thousands of detainees have no credible link to gang activity. Police conduct mass arrests under arbitrary quotas, detaining thousands of innocent civilians based purely on vague criteria like tattoos, neighborhoods, or suspicion. Detainees face mass trials without due process or meaningful legal representation.
Mass incarceration itself, not justice or rehabilitation, is Bukele’s solution.
International Condemnation & Human Rights Violations
CECOT’s conditions draw fierce international condemnation:
Amnesty International condemns CECOT as deliberately "cruel, inhuman, and degrading."
Human Rights Watch documents systematic torture, indefinite detention without trial, and extensive deaths from abuse.
The United Nations and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights explicitly denounce Bukele’s methods as blatant violations of international standards.
Yet Bukele remains defiant, dismissing criticism and actively resisting independent oversight.
Prison by Proxy: The Rise of Outsourced Repression
CECOT symbolizes a disturbing global trend: democratic governments adopting authoritarian methods by outsourcing detention abroad to evade accountability. Bukele openly promotes CECOT as an international model, publicly confirming his administration received $6 million from the Trump administration specifically to incarcerate deportees. This payment directly funded the transfer and indefinite detention of individuals at CECOT, solidifying the prison’s role as a hub for outsourced human rights abuses.
Historically, authoritarian leaders have employed offshore or remote detention facilities to imprison perceived threats indefinitely, circumventing legal protections and accountability. Stalin’s gulags explicitly silenced political dissent, while the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay primarily held detainees indefinitely without trial. Both examples, though distinct, reveal how offshore facilities have served as tools to evade judicial oversight and human rights protections.
CECOT’s emerging role marks a dark evolution of this practice: openly operating prisons that strip detainees of rights and create "permanent legal black holes" where governments can disappear individuals indefinitely without challenge or consequence.
With the Trump administration explicitly exploring deporting American citizens to CECOT, the threat becomes alarmingly personal. Normalizing offshore detention would mean stripping detainees, potentially even U.S. citizens, of constitutional and human rights protections entirely, creating a dangerous global precedent.
CECOT is more than El Salvador’s crisis. It’s a stark warning about how democracies slide toward authoritarianism, trading human rights for perceived security and political convenience.
Remember: Auschwitz was located in Poland, not Germany. Atrocities can happen anywhere—especially when powerful nations outsource repression and citizens become passive observers. Indifference, silence, and normalization are the essential ingredients of human rights abuses, then and now.
The Names We Remember—and Those We Never Will
Behind every detainee held indefinitely in CECOT are families grieving, futures destroyed, and lives violently interrupted. Thousands remain unnamed, trapped in darkness beyond accountability or oversight.
But this is not only their crisis—it is ours as well. What is happening in El Salvador is a chilling warning about the fragility of democracy and the ease with which rights can be dismantled. If we fail to resist this authoritarian precedent now, we risk seeing such horrors become our own reality.
Inaction is complicity. Silence is acceptance. We face a clear choice today between defending democratic principles or watching them erode into darkness. The future we live in tomorrow depends entirely upon what we choose to do today.
What You Can Do Right Now
Immediately support human rights and accountability efforts in El Salvador: Sign Amnesty International’s petition demanding transparency and an end to illegal expulsions to El Salvador, and amplify the ongoing advocacy and human rights campaigns led by Cristosal and Human Rights Watch.
Contact your elected representatives: Urge them to publicly oppose policies exporting U.S. detainees abroad, and demand immediate hearings to investigate abuses at CECOT and the Trump administration’s involvement.
In the coming days, I'll release a detailed playbook outlining additional strategic actions and pathways for resistance. The stakes have never been clearer: CECOT’s horrors must never become a global blueprint. Our actions today shape the world we’ll live in tomorrow. This is our moment—and our responsibility—to choose clearly between authoritarian darkness and democratic light.
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Absolutely deplorable. A living nightmare for the humans incarcerated there under the inhumane conditions that have been reported. We MUST NOT let this government regime hide from their instigation and cooperation with El Salvador’s authoritarian regime. Our protests MUST become even larger to include Trump’s misuse of power.
This is obscenely inhumane. The USA should be tried for crimes against humanity.