Americas press review

In the spotlight: in El Salvador, a transfer of "maras" prisoners to President Bukele's mega-prison

Salvador, February 24: the transfer of the maras, a skilfully orchestrated staging to strike the spirits.

via REUTERS - SECRETARIA DE PRENSA DE LA PRESIO

Text by: Eliott Brachet Follow

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The first 2,000 prisoners who were members of the gangs called "maras" were transferred on Friday February 24 to the largest penitentiary center on the American continent, which can accommodate up to 40,000 inmates.

 " Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is waging a much publicized "war" on criminal gangs, said on Twitter on Friday.

The impressive images of this transfer were widely reported by the American press.

We see hundreds of men in chains, bare-chested, with shaved heads, hands behind their heads and skin covered with tattoos.

These gang members, mainly from Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, were transferred at a run, heads lowered, in the middle of a cordon of armed and hooded Salvadoran police.

This brand new prison, with high security and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, located in Tecoluca (70 kilometers east of the capital San Slavador) is called “CECOT”, the acronym for Center for the Containment of Terrorism.

This "Guantanamo" of gangs, the largest prison in America, is a project of President Nayib Bukele who has made the fight against armed gangs his hobbyhorse.

The newspaper

in an editorial

wonders about the fate of these thousands of young men " 

 ".

" 

 ", can we read in the columns of the Salvadoran newspaper, condemned to " 

 ".

The government's big challenge, the daily believes, will be in the longer term to “ 

 ”.

“Number politics” and human rights abuses

President Bukele, elected in 2019, is extremely popular for this policy of fighting armed gangs.

The president boasts of having made El Salvador “ 

 ”.

The homicide rate has actually dropped drastically for 4 years, reports

, which considers that the way is clear for a re-election of Nayib Bukele.

Elections are scheduled for next year in February 2024 and according to a poll taken up by the newspaper, Nayib Bukele would enjoy 90% favorable opinions.

The only problem: interpretations of the Salvadoran Constitution differ as to the possibility for a president to run for two terms in a row.

Seen from the countries of the region, the war waged by Nayib Bukele against the gangs is “ 

 ”,

.

However, this policy has resulted in numerous human rights violations,

.

Since March of last year, the President has obtained from Parliament the establishment of a renewed

state of emergency .

In one year, more than 60,000 people suspected of belonging to villainous groups were put behind bars.

This politics of figures, with

constitute serious breaches of the rule of law, the daily believes.

Insecurity is at half mast in El Salvador, which has become a “prison state”. 

Assassination of an indigenous leader in Ecuador

In Ecuador, police seized around 8.8 tons of cocaine hidden between bananas in a container bound for Belgium in the port of Guayaquil.

Another news also made the front page of the national press when a leader of an indigenous community was assassinated in the north of the country.

Eduardo Mendua, one of the representatives of the Cofan community was shot dead by hooded men in Sucumbios.

He was a member of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.

An environmental defender,

, which had opposed the activities of the PetroEcuador group in his region.

According to

, President Guillermo Lasso personally called for an investigation, promising that the crime would not go unpunished.

The latter has been facing a tenacious rebellion from indigenous and peasant communities from the outskirts of the country for a year.

The Confederation, of which Eduardo Mendua was a member, demands the resignation of President Lasso, contested in the streets.

A sign that the tension is high in Ecuador,

, presents a country in fire and blood, whose conflicts are exploited and stirred up by hands representing the " 

 ".

Protests in Mexico

The Mexican press returned this Monday, February 27 to the demonstrations of the day before.

" 

" in the streets of the country's major cities,

.

At the call of the right-wing opposition, 

, 500,000 according to the organizers quoted by

, marched against the controversial reform of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) aimed at cutting the budget of the National Electoral Institute, one year before the presidential election.

In the columns of the newspaper

, the president of the presidential party, Morena, considers that these demonstrations are " 

 " organized by " 

 " wishing " 

".  

Caricom mission in Haiti

A delegation from the Caribbean Community (

) is expected Monday in Port-au-Prince, according to a statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago.

On the agenda: the security crisis in Haiti.

How to stem the violence?

newspaper , the delegation will be led by Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Jamaica is one of the only countries, with the Bahamas, to have offered to intervene with the Haitian authorities to fight against insecurity, saying it is ready to participate militarily in an international force.

that an emissary from Canada, another support from the government, will be present in this delegation.

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