El Salvador Under Bukele: The Cost of Control

On March 15th 2025, US President Donald Trump ordered the deportation of 238 Venezuelan prisoners to a high-security prison in El Salvador. The decision was challenged by a federal judge but the planes had already taken off. “Too late,” ironically commented the Salvadoran president.

These prisoners were sent to Cecot, considered to be one of the largest and most secure prisons in the world. It was built on the orders of president Nayib Bukele in 2022 to imprison members of the “Maras” for life – the murderous gangs that had been plaguing El Salvador since the 1990s. 

Very few journalists have been able to enter the prison but we secured a visit – under government supervision – to one of the buildings. Prisoners are kept there for life under an extremely harsh prison regime, with no opportunities to go out into the fresh air, no contact with the outside world and often no trial. 

This system, praised by Donald Trump, has been denounced by numerous countries and human rights organisations. It is accompanied by a state of emergency throughout the country, known as the “State of Exception”, which allows the police and army to arrest people based on the slightest suspicion, denunciation or even a tattoo (which, in some cases, indicates gang membership).

This report not only takes us to Cecot, but also one of the country’s twenty or so ordinary prisons. El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2% of the population in prison. The team also went to meet an innocent man, released after months of detention and torture. He gave his testimony anonymously but his account is chilling. Finally, this documentary shows how, with great difficulty, Salvadorans are attempting to assert their rights in a country where security now totally prevails over the rule of law.