Inside El Salvador's mega-prison where Trump says he would jail Americans 'in a heartbeat'

President Donald Trump has expressed his eagerness to send convicted criminals of any nationality to a notoriously violent ‘mega-prison’ in El Salvador, where inmates are denied visitation rights and are never allowed outside.

On Monday, (February 3), the Trump administration and Nayib Bukele, the 81st president of El Salvador, announced they’d agreed for undocumented, detained migrants and imprisoned citizens in the US to be sent to the Central American country.

Trump, 78, expressed his desire to send convicts of all nationalities to El Salvador during an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

CECOT was opened in January 2023 (MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)

“If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," he said.

"I don't know if we do or not. We're looking at that right now, but we could make deals where we'd get these animals out of our country."

According to a report by the BBC, the Salvadorean leader, 43, clarified that he would be ‘willing to take in only convicted criminals’ and would house them at the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Centre, or CECOT, ‘in exchange for a fee’.

“The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable,” Bukele added.

'Unprecedented and alarming'

Speaking about the proposed agreement, Michael E. Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue research institute in Washington, said: “It’s quite extraordinary and unprecedented and alarming in many ways.

“I know a lot of experts have raised questions about the constitutionality and legality of this deal, but Bukele is a leader who has absolute power in El Salvador and it seems Trump seems to be moving in a similar direction in trying to reduce or eliminate any checks on his power,” he told The New York Times.

Prisoners reside in their cells for 23-and-a-half hours per day (MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)

Bukele, who confirmed he had ‘offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system’, has ruled over El Salvador since succeeding Salvador Sánchez Cerén, 80, June 2019.

In March 2022, he initiated a crackdown on gang-related crimes, which has seen more than 84,000 people being arrested, according to PBS.

Inside CECOT

Less than a year after Bukele began his campaign, the $100 million CECOT was opened in the town of Tecoluca, San Vicente.

This mega-jail spans 410 acres and can house up to 40,000 inmates, making it one of the largest in the world by prisoner capacity, as per government figures.

The facility consists of eight sprawling blocks divided into modules, with the AFP reporting inmates must stay with 65 to 70 others in their cells for up to 23-and-a-half hours a day.

The prison has been described by officials as a 'concrete and steel pit' (Handout/Presidencia El Salvador via Getty Images)

These cells consist of an open toilet, a cement basin and tiered metal bunks, forcing those incarcerated to sit on top of one another.

It’s understood those held in the CECOT are not allowed outside. Instead, they are allowed to exercise for 30 minutes a day inside the prison’s hallways.

A ‘concrete and steel pit’

The New York Post writes that the building also features wide dining halls, break rooms, a gym, and board games that can only be utilised by the 2,000 guards working at the maximum security facility.

Unlike other detention centres, there are no workshops or educational programmes says PBS. It’s also reported that personal items and books are banned, but that each cell has two Bibles.

President Donald Trump said he would send criminals to the institution 'in a heartbeat' (Marvin RECINOS / AFP)

It’s also said that those under 24-hour surveillance at the complex are never served meat, with Newsweek reporting inmates’ meals usually consist of beans, rice, and plantains.

The Mirror states that those confined in the CECOT are forced to eat food with their hands due to guards seeing cutlery as potential dangerous weapons.

If prisoners commit offences, they are sent to solitary confinement and are ordered to reside in isolation cells which are ‘completely dark except for a small shaft of light from a ceiling hole’.

The prison has been described as a ‘concrete and steel pit’ by Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture.

He claimed CECOT was being used ‘to dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty’ because no prisoner has ever been released from the institution.