# El Salvador opens CECOT and transfers thousands of exception detainees

Date: 2023

## The fact

In February 2023 El Salvador inaugurated the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) and began transferring exception detainees. A tattoo is not a judgment.

## Context

The exception sat as parent. Neighbouring homicide drop is a neighbouring print. He did not sit as every warden.

Exception 27 March 2022 is the parent. Custody deaths are a neighbouring cost. Homicide 2023 is a neighbouring print.

The President of El Salvador heads the executive, commands the armed forces, and can request a state of exception that the Legislative Assembly must approve and extend. He does not write a Constitutional Chamber judgment by himself, an IMF board decision, or a [US Treasury](/organizations/us-treasury) designation. The Assembly, PNC, Fiscalía, and prison service share specific files. A homicide print is not a unique due-process coefficient. Gang membership is not proven by detention alone.

## Evidence and sources

Presidency of El Salvador carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is justice and [humanitarian access](/drivers/humanitarian-access): a completed mega-prison for exception detainees is a dated confinement instrument, remaining untried status named.

## What is established and what is not

Established: February 2023 CECOT opening and transfers, independently reported.

Not established: that every transferred inmate had a completed gang trial, or a unique later death coefficient from the first convoy.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

The prison service held. The PNC transferred. Courts under exception sat slowly.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies El Salvador opens CECOT and transfers thousands of exception detainees, not a later speech about El Salvador opens CECOT and transfers thousands of exception detainees.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. El Salvador opens CECOT and transfers thousands of exception detainees on 2023-02-24 is not a licence to treat every later Presidency of El Salvador communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average El Salvador opens CECOT and transfers thousands of exception detainees into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He inaugurated and owned the brand. The prison service held. The PNC transferred. Courts under exception sat slowly. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Nayib Bukele: https://factrail.ai/people/nayib-bukele

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion
- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-opens-cecot-mega-prison-2023-02-24/
- https://www.presidencia.gob.sv/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sv-cecot-2023