The appalling conditions of El Salvador’s maximum security jail were recalled by a man who was sent to the “worst prison on Earth.”
Under President Nayib Bukele’s government, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) formally inaugurated in 2023 in an effort to combat gang violence.
The most dangerous criminals in the nation are housed in this Tecoluca facility, which is regarded as one of the safest in the world and can house 40,000 people.
The compound is well guarded with 19 towers, and detainees are constantly monitored by a security crew.
In an effort to remove gang members, including Americans, from the streets, the Trump administration detained 250 Venezuelan males, including Arturo Suarez.
However, according to his family, the 34-year-old has never been convicted of a crime in the four nations where he has resided.
In March, immigration officials detained Suarez, an aspiring singer, when he was in North Carolina filming a music video.
Citing Suarez’s 33 tattoos, authorities claimed he was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Arturo Suarez is freed from CECOT after nearly five months
Suarez was released through a prisoner swap with ten U.S. citizens and permanent residents who had been imprisoned in Venezuela after over five months.
“We were constantly beaten,” he told Sky News. “We suffered physical, verbal, and psychological abuse.”
“There wasn’t a day the wardens didn’t tell us that the only way we’d leave that place was if we were dead. In fact, the first words the head of the prison said to us after the first beating was ‘welcome to hell’.”
19 men sleep in one cell
“We were sleeping 19 people to a cell,” he said, adding that ‘if we spoke loudly, they would take away our mattresses, if they found us bathing more than once a day, they’d take away the mattresses from us’.
“The punishment was severe. It was beatings and humiliations and they took away our food,” he explained.
“I remember we were exercising and a cellmate, very politely, asked the prison head if we could bathe a second time that day, since we were doing exercise.”
“His words were ‘that’s your problem, it’s not my problem if you exercise’. We were also made to eat with our hands.”
“They tried to take our humanity away from us. They tried to make us lose everything.”
Suarez’s wife, Nathali, and their 10-month-old baby, Nahiara, reside in Chile, therefore his family in Venezuela is currently providing for him.
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