El Salvador: 2,000 more to prison, vows will ‘never return’

By MARCOS ALEMAN
Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s government has sent 2,000 more suspects to a new prison built especially for gang members, and the justice minister vows that “they will never return” to the streets. The tough statement came Wednesday as the administration of President Nayib Bukele asked for yet another extension of an anti-gang emergency measure that would take the crackdown into its 13th month. About 65,000 people have been arrested in the antigang campaign. Rights groups say abuses abound. The government announced the mass inmate transfer with a slickly produced video showing prisoners forced to run barefoot and handcuffed down stairways and crouch in closely clumped groups in cells.