Terrorism Confinement Center

Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), maximum-security mega-prison located in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Officially named Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in Spanish, it is more commonly referred to by its acronym, CECOT. The institution is one of the largest high-security prisons in the world, built to hold up to 40,000 inmates. Construction of the institution began in 2022 under the orders of Salvadoran Pres. Nayib Bukele as part of his administration’s aggressive campaign to combat crime and gang violence. The prison officially opened in 2023, and within months, the Salvadoran government transferred thousands of suspected gang members to the facility under the country’s state of exception, a policy that suspends certain constitutional rights and has drawn international attention for its scope and impact on civil liberties for citizens in the country.

CECOT has faced widespread criticism for the way it treats its prisoners. Critics of the mega-prison have described the institution as a “black hole for human rights.” For example, the prison confines detainees in heavily crowded cells—sometimes with more than 100 people—for up to 23 and a half hours a day. The lights remain on around the clock inside the facility. Inmates are denied outdoor access, visits from family, and communication with the outside world; even lawyers are barred from seeing their clients, effectively cutting prisoners off from legal representation and support. Moreover, the institution does not offer educational opportunities or rehabilitation programs of any kind to prepare prisoners for reentry into society after their sentences. As Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, put it, the prison was built to “dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty.” In many cases, prisoners at CECOT are not serving fixed sentences but are instead being removed from society indefinitely.

In March 2025 CECOT gained international attention after reports revealed that the United States government, under orders from Pres. Donald J. Trump, deported individuals directly from its custody into the Salvadoran prison. The deportations followed the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a statute that grants the U.S. president broad authority to detain or remove noncitizens during times of war. The law had previously been invoked only three times in U.S. history: during the War of 1812 and the two World Wars. In this case, the administration stated that members of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela posed a national security threat and equated their presence to a hostile invasion in order to justify the use of the wartime provision.

According to U.S. officials, 250 individuals alleged to be affiliated with Tren de Aragua and MS-13 were flown to El Salvador as part of the operation. The transfer was carried out under a one-year agreement in which the U.S. government agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to detain the individuals. Bukele confirmed that these individuals would be held at CECOT. However, although the deportees were described as gang members, neither the United States nor El Salvador released a list of names or provided evidence supporting those accusations. A U.S. immigration official later stated that many of the individuals had no criminal record in the United States. In addition, relatives of some deportees shared official documents indicating that several also had no criminal history in Venezuela or in other countries where they had previously lived. With limited information disclosed by either government, the basis for many of the individual detentions remains unclear.

Although the CECOT deportations drew international scrutiny, other developments have suggested that the scope of such policies could expand further. In April 2025 Bukele met with Trump at the White House. In a bold statement in front of the media during this meeting, Trump floated the idea of expanding U.S. cooperation with foreign prisons such as CECOT—not only for the detention of migrants but also potentially for U.S. citizens accused of violent crimes. Legal experts expressed serious doubts about the legality of such a policy, noting that American citizens are protected by constitutional guarantees, including the right to due process and protection from deportation. Although no formal policy has been introduced, the statement has drawn renewed attention to international detention agreements such as the one involving CECOT.