In notorious Salvadoran prison, US deportees live in identical cells to convicted gangsters

CNN is the first US news organization inside Cecot prison since the latest deportation flight.

Men deported by the United States to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison are living in “the same” conditions as convicted gangsters, prison director Belarmino García said on Tuesday, during an exclusive tour for CNN, the first US news organization to visit the facility since the latest deportation flight. García would not discuss any specifics around the deportees beyond confirming they are in his facility. But when pressed, he said “there are no privileges.” That would mean the deportees’ heads have been shaved and they are kept in communal cells holding up to 100 men each for 23½ hours a day. Two sources told CNN the situation is less regimented for the deportees, but the facilities are the same. The cells have no privacy, and no furniture beyond rows of stacked metal bunks with no mattresses or pillows. Some 278 men have been deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador, accused of being members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang or Salvadorans who are said to be part of MS-13. But they also include Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker and father-of-three from Maryland, who was mistakenly removed from the US through an “administrative error.” His case is now with the US Supreme Court, which extended the deadline of a lower court judge requiring the administration to get him back by midnight on Monday.