That July 1, 2020, when the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, paid tribute to his inauguration as head of the Executive, he declared to the attendees the words that now resonate (with alarm) in the media. communication from around the world: “Now it is our turn, all of us, to suffer a little. It is our turn now, all of us, to have a little pain.” And so it happened.
The president, in his speech, narrated the conditions under which part of his security strategy would operate. That is, his plan to combat the gangs. A project divided, until now, into 5 stages that he called the Territorial Control Plan (PCT) with which he intended to end injustice and violence.
Among other things, Bukele’s PCT contemplated two central strategies. The first was executed on March 27, 2022 and contemplated the legislative application of an Exception Regime, with which security authorities carried out random raids to find the alleged criminals. This regime canceled constitutional rights for the population. The second stage consisted of the construction of a megaprison at the expense of the treasury and capacities for confinement never seen before.
More than a building, it was a promise of peace. One that broke in the short term. Thus, in terms of what is longed for with great hope, on January 31, 2023 in the Republic of El Salvador, the opening of that hulk of cement and steel was witnessed, which, under the order of Nayib Bukele, they named the Center Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), that is, a megaprison with maximum security protocols and with the capacity to detain 40 thousand people. It is the largest penitentiary center in the Latin American region, according to the words of its main promoter, the president of El Salvador.
And trying to justify the construction of said hulk and the Exception Regime that was already generating discontent and concern, Bukele commented in front of the media: “The human rights of honest people are more important.”
The president uttered that phrase during a press conference held at the National Palace, when the attending press questioned him about the viability of using a confinement center and a regime that did not respect human rights to end the crime that plagued El Salvador.
The media’s doubt was legitimate. And since the opening of said megaprison and the implementation of the regime, the exact number of people detained and in a situation of deprivation of liberty is unknown. There is also no clarity regarding the people who have lost their lives during these arrests. Some sources, such as the Ministry of Security, report an approximate of 71 thousand people detained and 11 murders. Despite this information, uncertainty persists.
Mexico, guest country?
Information about the detained people is not the only thing missing. Well, despite the attempts to access the contracts that El Salvador awarded to the three companies that built the prison, so far, no media outlet or citizen has been able to gain access. Nor does any authority explain why these contracting companies were selected or how much the debt that Salvadorans will have to pay is.
In fact, on its transparency portal the Ministry of Finance of El Salvador only reports the contract numbers, the contracting date and the company name (or name) of the contracting firm. In fact, one of the main criticisms of Bukele’s project is precisely its opacity. Some financial experts, such as the Bloomberg firm, report that so far only an estimate of the cost can be known due to the “president’s secrecy”, an amount that currently amounts to 70 million dollars (according to the source consulted).
Part of the information that is public indicates that a Mexican firm was involved in the construction of the building where dozens of Salvadorans have now lost their lives.
In total there are 3 companies that were in charge of the construction. These are the Salvadoran firms OMNI and DISA, while the Mexican one is Contratista General de América Latina SA de CV
But in Mexico the problem is the same, opacity. The company’s first bad practice appears in its records or lack thereof. Well, before the transparency portal of the Commercial Registry of the Mexican State (SIGER), the firm did not report who its shareholders are.
Furthermore, its most recent commercial movement was to change the name and Purpose of the Company, that is, modify the reasons why the agreement with which the company was established would be renewed to be able to perform different functions.
The operation occurred on June 11, 2020. In said procedure (of which PODER has a copy), the firm represented by the citizen Gabriela Soto Nava, in her capacity as general delegate, requested the notary public number 97 of the State of Mexico, Marco Antonio Espinoza Rommyngth, the name change. Thus, it changed its name from Marcadores de Pavimento SA de CV to Contratista General de América Latina SA de CV; Likewise, Soto Nava requested a change of registered office to, finally, modify the purpose of the commercial company.
With these procedures, the firm went from arguing that it was a specialist in road signs, to building all types of road infrastructure, bridges and prisons.
However, expert people and organizations strongly criticize the model where a company that is accused of cases of human rights violations or corruption in one country can only make administrative changes to continue generating income in another country. Likewise, there are international standards regarding the responsibilities of States regarding human rights outside their borders.
For example, the Maastricht Principles on the Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights establish these responsibilities, and in their “Scope” section they explain some of the obligations of (adhering) States to regulate companies that cause damage in countries where they carry out their commercial activities. The Maastricht Principles constitute an international expert opinion that reiterates human rights standards in the area of Extraterritorial Obligations (ETOs).
“All States must adopt the necessary measures to ensure that non-State actors that are in a position to regulate, as established in Principle 25, including private individuals and organizations, transnational companies and other commercial enterprises, do not nullify or impair the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.”, cites the document in section IV.
Who is behind the firm? And what is he doing in Mexico?
Despite the missing information, thanks to some commercial movements of the firm and the efforts to recover the public contracting system in Mexico, we can temporarily know who some of its shareholders are and how many contracts it has received from the Mexican Government.
For example, we know that Grupo Tradeco is the parent company of the firm that built CECOT, that is, Contratista General de América Latina SA de CV. A relevant fact about its central company in Mexico is that it was sanctioned for several months for corruption.
Tradeco also renewed its contracts with the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. According to the information revealed on the Who’s Who platform developed by PODER, the firm Contratista General de América Latina SA de CV received 3 awards with Mexican institutions for a total of 45.9 million pesos between 2020 and 2021. Two with the National Guard (GN) and another with the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU).
Regarding the owners, attorneys or representatives of the company, we know that citizen Eduardo Andrés Benton Zavala manages the firm in El Salvador. The above as ruled in assembly 2019099615 in the hands of this media.
This character, Andrés Benton, seems nuclear in the structure of the business group. In addition to representing Grupo Tradeco in Mexico, he also does so in the United States. Benton Zavala acted as a representative of the Tradeco firm in a lawsuit against the Ranger Offshore México S. de RL de CV firm that occurred in Houston, Texas due to Tradeco’s alleged failure to comply with the plaintiff.
The reason for the sanction was that this firm was flagged in 2015 for conflict of interest in the governments of former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. As reported by some media such as El Financiero, the firm was facing lawsuits throughout the country and at least another in the United States for breach of contracts.
After those trials (in Mexico and the United States), the Federal Government decided that Tradeco could not do business with the government for 30 months. Finally, through a notice published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), the disqualification became effective.
Another name that coincides between both corporate names (Tradeco Group and General Contractor of Latin America) is that of Yves Loustalot Laclette Macías, who in addition to reporting to the Treasury as vice president of General Contractor, also appears as vice president of Tradeco.
As of today, a year and months have passed since both operations (the emergency regime and the megaprison) are in operation, the authorities of El Salvador already recognize the murder of at least 11 people in that framework and there is no agreement on the number of people deprived of their liberty without constitutional rights. With the families of those detained silenced and civil society organizations discursively and financially attacked by the government, reality already surpasses the application of justice.
More than a building, it was a promise of peace, yes. But it was one that was broken in the short term after the terror of being detained and considered a terrorist, without due process. And of course, it was also a good business developed in opacity.
Ricardo Balderas is an investigative journalist at PODER Latin America.
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