Overview

• President Nayib Bukele wrote on social media that he is ready to ship all detainees from the CECOT megaprison to Paris in retaliation for a runway show he claims glorified criminality.
• Willy Chavarria’s Paris Fashion Week collection featured models in white shirts and shorts resembling CECOT inmate uniforms and staged poses echoing detainees’ treatment.
• The Terrorism Confinement Center, opened in 2023 under a state of emergency, now houses over 15,000 suspected gang members and more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the United States.
• Human Rights Watch and other groups have condemned CECOT for severe overcrowding, virtually no access to lawyers or family and limited time outside cells.
• El Salvador’s government credits the crackdown for a nearly 70 percent drop in homicides in 2023, even as it faces criticism for mass arrests and due process violations.