El Salvador moves 2,000 gang members to new prison

The first group of 2,000 gang members was transferred to a new prison in El Salvador, the country's president Nayib Bukele said on Friday. The prison, located 74 kilometres from San Salvador, has 33 blocks of construction within 236 blocks isolated from the city and is set to hold 40,000 people captured under El Salvador's state of emergency.

The authorities have captured more than 64,000 people accused of being gang members since the beginning of the state of emergency. The state of emergency was approved on March 27 of last year following the murder of 62 Salvadorans the previous day. The number of homicides has dropped from 1,211 in 2021 to 615 in 2022 and 25 so far in 2023.