El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison was notorious long before the Trump administration’s recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members there. The Center for Terrorism Confinement, to give it its full name, is considered the largest prison in the Americas – with a capacity of 40,000 inmates – and has been the biggest symbol in the Latin American country’s controversial crackdown on domestic crime. It is now home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals, including mass murderers and gang members billed as the “worst of the worst” and is notorious for the spartan conditions in which they are kept. Some 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners are currently thought to be housed there, with the most recent arrivals being the 261 people the Trump administration deported from the US over the weekend – 238 of whom it accused of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23…
