CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 24: The key to El Salvador’s prisons, and the Nayib Bukele administration that runs them, are facilities that most observers abroad have never heard of: black boxes where reports of systematic torture have emerged in survivor testimony, disease proliferates and medical care is denied, and at least 375 people have reportedly died in custody.

These prisons are a focal point of political corruption investigated by Salvadoran and U.S. authorities, from the top brass of the Ministry of Security to rank-and-file officers. They were also the stage of Bukele’s pact with MS-13 and 18th Street from 2019 to 2022 — the collapse of which led to the installment of the state of exception now three years old.

This special April monthly episode of Central America in Minutes was written and narrated by Roman Gressier with audio production and original soundtrack by Omnionn. El Faro English translates Central America. Listen to Central America in Minutes every Friday on major podcast platforms.

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