Thousands of inmates bearing gang tattoos moved to El Salvador mega prison in crackdown

El Salvador's government on Friday moved thousands of suspected gangsters to a newly opened mega prison, under a state of emergency following a spike in murders and other violent crimes.

The latest step in a controversial crackdown on crime has caused the Central American nation's prison population to soar.

"This will be their new home, where they won't be able to do any more harm to the population," President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.

Bukele further wrote that the first 2,000 people were transferred "at dawn, in a single operation" to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, considered to be the largest in the Americas, early Friday morning.

The accused gang members were moved to the 40,000-person-capacity prison.

In a video posted by Bukele, prisoners stripped down to white shorts, with their heads shaved, are seen running through the new prison into cells. Many of them are seen bearing gang tattoos.

President Bukele declared a ‘war on gangs’ last March, passing emergency measures which have been extended several times.

The emergency measures have been controversial as they limit some constitutional rights, such as allowing the security forces to arrest suspects without a warrant.

Since then, more than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime dragnet. Arrests can be made without a warrant, private communications are accessible by the government, and detainees no longer have the right to a lawyer.

Human rights organisations argue that innocent people have been caught up in the policy, including at least dozens who have died in police custody.

But Bukele's anti-gang push remains widely popular with Salvadorans, and the country's security minister told Reuters it would continue until all criminals are captured.

(With inputs from agencies)

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