By The opinion
13 Feb 2024, 1:33 PM EST
Luisito Comunica is a Mexican influencer who has become famous for his travels showing his followers different parts of the world. He recently visited a very controversial place: the megaprison of El Salvador, a place praised by many and criticized by others.
After his visit, the influencer was in the same situation as the Salvadoran president’s flagship work Nayib Bukelesince the positions were divided on social networks, since for many it was a propaganda act by the Mexican – since even the president shared the video – but for others it was exposing the prisoners who live there.
“It is somewhat terrifying to be a few meters from murderers and kidnappers without any type of protection,” the influencer noted in his video.
One kilometer before he arrived at the Terrorism Confinement Center, Luisito Comunica underwent seven rigorous reviews in which he had to check that he was going to the maximum security prison, where visitors are not allowed, but the press is welcome.
The controversial prison
It is made up of modules, in each one there are 30 cells and 100 prisoners live inside them, they do everything there, they sleep, go to the bathroom and clean themselves. The bunk beds in which they sleep are four levels and resemble shelves, they are made of steel and do not have mattresses or any protection.
They only go out to exercise and eat their food.. They do it in an orderly manner, five by five or 10 by 10. They are handcuffed hand and foot, each one is carried by a guard. They watch them as a group to avoid riots and most have their faces covered to prevent retaliation against their family.
Something that Luisito comments is that it is sad to see the prisoners live like this, however, when he saw the atrocities they committed, he was just as surprised, because some have thousand-year sentences for murders, rapes or other crimes they committed.
“The prison is built with a technology that does not allow there to be a telephone signal so that nothing can really be communicated from here, in the same way, they take you to a room where they search you, they take off your shoes, they check your thickness of the sock, it is not for nothing that it receives the definition of a maximum security prison,” he commented.
According to the weekly Proceso, Luisito Comunica is no stranger to videos of this type, since he has also recorded from the Apodaca prison and from the Topo Chico prison, which has already been closed.
Criticism of the influencer
The system implemented by Bukele has been criticized by human rights defenders, who claim that it is not respecting the rights of criminals.
According to Amnesty International report 22/23, the majority of the more than 60,000 arrests carried out since the beginning of the state of emergency in March 2022 have been allegedly arbitrary, since they did not comply with legal requirements, such as an order of arrest or that the person in question had been detained at the time of committing a crime in flagrante delicto.
The wave of criticism that the president of El Salvador has received reached the influencer who was called a propagandist, in addition to it was said he dehumanized the prisoners by referring to them as beings and normalizing the loss of rights.
Keep reading:
– Ecuador will build “Bukele model” prisons to regain control of the prisons.
– The impressive photographs of the thousands of prisoners arriving at the megaprison in El Salvador.