Bukele puts thousands of El Salvador's prisoners to work in exchange for reduced sentences

31 January marked two years since the inauguration of the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) in El Salvador, the 40,000-capacity mega-prison where the country's president, Nayib Bukele, has held thousands of gang members and criminals. Bukele has shared a video on social media showing hundreds of inmates from this prison, dressed in yellow t-shirts and grouped around long tables, working to qualify for a reduced sentence.

‘Forty per cent of our prison population is already paying their debt to society. In return, they receive a shorter sentence and learn a skill,’ he shared alongside the video. The prisoners' jobs range from making clothes to cleaning beaches. ‘They will help us build roads, hospitals and schools; they will make uniforms and furniture; they will grow and harvest food; and they will help us clean our rivers, lakes and beaches,’ he said.